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FEATURES

The West Texas Waste Wars by Nate Blakeslee 8 For more than a decade, the nuclear waste industry has been in retreat. As they make their last stand in Texas, the radioactive lobbyists have laid siege to Austin.

The Cyber-Hammer: Tom DeLay Online by Mark Murray 14 Most Congressmen use their Web pages for legislative info and constituent service. Not the Majority Whip: his "D-Files" pour partisan venom on the Enemy.

DEPARTMENTS BOOKS AND THE CULTURE VOLUME 89, NO. 6 Dialogue 2 Plain Talk of the Deepest Kind 20 A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the Poetry by Karen Fiser truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are ded- Editorial icated to the whole truth, to human values above all in- The Facts—and the Truth 5 Journeys Into Madness 21 terests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation of democracy: we will take orders from none but our own Book Review by Lars Eighner conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent Bad Bills 7 the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater Legislation To Look Forward To Texas Monthly's Blue Period 25 to the ignoble in the human spirit. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not Media Observer by Rod Davis for anything they have not themselves written, and in Political Intelligence 16 publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we The South Has Risen Again 28 agree with them, because this is a journal of free voices. 18 Molly Ivins Book Review by Ron Nixon SINCE 1954 Rappin' on Rapoport AFTERWORD Founding Editor: Ronnie Dugger Jim Hightower 19 Publisher: Geoff Rips Mickey El Raton, Welfare Scam and Real Country Life 29 Editor: Louis Dubose Wall Street Bonuses By Brad Tyer Associate Editor: Michael King Production: Harrison Saunders The Back Page 32 Cover photos by Alan Pogue Copy Editor: Mimi Bardagjy Thousand-Dollar-Man Rob Junell Poetry Editor: Naomi Shihab Nye Business Manager: Amanda Toering Special Correspondent: Karen Olsson Editorial Intern: Mark Murray Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Barbara Belejack, Betty Brink, Brett Campbell, Jo Clifton, Lars Eighner, DIALOGUE I James Galbraith, Dagoberto Gilb, James Harrington, Jim Hightower, Molly Ivins, Paul Jennings, Steven Kellman, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Debbie PAY AT THE DOOR federal tax when I buy five dollars' worth Nathan, Brad Tyer, James McCarty Yeager. Some of President Reagan's and President of gas for my car. A gambler pays zero Contributing Photographers: Vic Hinterlang, Patricia sales tax on a $5,000 gamble on stock. Moore, Alan Pogue. Bush's wealthy friends and Hollywood Contributing Artists: Michael Alexander, Eric Avery, stars visited them in the White House. But Some seventy-five years ago, such sales Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth I am sure none ever contributed to Repub- were taxed. Why not now? Epstein, Valerie Fowler, Kevin Kreneck, Michael Krone, Ben Sargent, Gail Woods. lican campaigns. That would have been Samuel Schiffer Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; absolutely scandalous! Los Angeles, CA Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Arlington, Mass.; Bob Eckhardt, Austin; Is it possible that some of Speaker Gin- Sissy Farenthold, Houston; John Kenneth Galbraith, grich's or Senate Majority Leader Lott's WHY BOTHER Cambridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; for covering George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; well-to-do friends visited them at their tax- First, thanks to the Observer Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., supported congressional offices? If they the confirmation process for Barry McBee, San Antonio; Willie Morris, Jackson, Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Fort Worth; James Presley, Texarkana; also contributed to Republican campaigns, the chairman of the Texas Natural Re- Susan Reid, Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, Galveston; somebody might think they were trying to source Conservation Commission ("Wild Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. About Barry," February 28; see also pages Development Consultant: Frances Barton buy legislative favors! Business Manager: Cliff Olofson, 1931-1995 Tom Burtis 4 and 5 in this issue). In my view, the THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/USPS 541300), entire contents Lubbock state's major daily papers have not given copyrighted, © 1997, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval between issues in January and July (24 issues per year) by the Texas Democ- this, or other gubernatorial appointments, racy Foundation, a 501(03 non-profit corporation. 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) 477-0746. E-mail: [email protected]. the coverage they deserve. World Wide Web DownHome page: httpd/www.hyperweb.coni/txobserver TAXING QUESTION Periodicals postage paid at Austin, Texas. Thank you for Jim Hightower's piece But, having attended the Senate Nomi- SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $32, two years S59, three years $84. Full-time students $18 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and "Jargon of Tyranny" (February 28). Two nations Committee hearings regarding Mr. bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Micro- films Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, MI 48106. points: (a) According to Mr. Nader, 80 to McBee's confirmation, I think your edito- INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary rial misses one of the major points about Index to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 198 I,The 90 percent of stock sales are pure gam- Texas Observer Index. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, bling, not genuine investments. The stock the whole process: Senators Barrientos, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. exchange runs gambling dens, not "invest- Gallegos or Truan at least were interested ment" houses; (b) I pay a heavy state and enough to ask questions and explore some

2 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 DIALOGUE /

of the problems at the agency. A number of their questions did bring out some very problematic trends at TNRCC, and Mr. OBSERVER HONORED McBee was also asked to respond to a set he Texas Observer has just been recognized, by Project Censored, for its cov- of written questions. erage of one of the Top Ten Censored Stories of 1996. "Shell's Oil, Africa's The real issue is, where was every other TBlood," by Ron Nixon and Michael King (January 12, 1996), recounting the Senator's interest? Senators Shapiro and covert involvement of the Royal Dutch/Shell Corporation in supporting the Nigerian Madla had only one or two questions, and military dictatorship, has been named the No. 2 most under-reported story of 1996. the rest of the committee was absent or Project Censored is a media watch group based at Sonoma State University in Califor- seemingly uninterested in exploring any nia, and its panel of judges is drawn from journalism experts across the U.S. issues in depth. Moreover, the Observer also had another story included in the "Top 25" under- Clearly, there are plenty of issues to reported stories of 1996. Our coverage of the EPA's decision to allow the re-importa- explore with a major regulatory body like tion of PCBs for commercial incineration ("Choose Your Poison" by Michael King, TNRCC—issues that have been in the March 8 and April 19, 1996), was judged to be the eighteenth most under-reported press and raised by citizen organizations story of last year. All twenty-five stories will be reviewed in Project Censored's annual repeatedly over the last couple of years. yearbook, Censored 1997: The News That Didn't Make the News, and authors of the Appointments should not necessarily be top ten ranked stories will be honored at a dinner in New York this spring. political footballs, but neither should they be rubber-stamped without relevant exam- cineration is a new use of the land, which is January 15. No agreement was reached. ination of the nominee's track record and not authorized in zoning codes. Because While we are still open to negotiations, we philosophy. If that type of exploration this was a "work session" of the City Coun- are going forward with a public hearing does not occur—in the public forum cil, they were able to avoid acting on our (to designate parties), scheduled for April where there is at least some accountabil- requests. We plan to return to a formal City 21 in Lubbock. ity—why bother with the confirmation Council meeting in the near future to force Kathryn Suchy process at all? them to vote on these issues. Neighbors United Mary E. Kelly At the meeting, it was revealed that the Lubbock Austin City has been subsidizing O'Hair's waste disposal for several years at the cost of up LUBBOCK STILL BURNING to $25,000 per month. (This figure reflects You were kind enough to write a short what the City would have made in revenue article in your December issue about our had they charged O'Hair for their waste Look for us next time you case against an air permit for a trench disposal.) The City (understandably) burner near our neighborhood in Lubbock, wants to end this subsidy, and so O'Hair leave the house. You'll find Texas ("To the Trenches," Political Intel- Shutters has chosen to incinerate because us in these Texas locations: ligence, December 20). it's the cheapest and most convenient Things have been progressing nicely solution to its waste disposal problem. • B. Dalton since then. We went before the City Coun- It was also revealed at City Council (by • Barnes & Noble cil on January 9... standing room only the Solid Waste Department) that the • Bookstop with our own supporters as well as the total wood waste picked up at this time • Borders press. At that time, we asked the Council includes 116 3-cubic-yard dumpsters of • And many other to revoke its initial support to the TNRCC wood blocks and three 30-cubic-yard retailers across for this proposed trench burner. (The letter truckloads of sawdust EVERY DAY! was authorized by the Mayor and written This translates to 16.8 tons of a precious the state by the Environmental Compliance Coordi- natural resource every day. The antici- Please let your local nator...who based the City's support on a pated growth of the company means this bookseller know that you'd telephone conversation with the TNRCC amount of waste will more than double in like to see the good, gray in which someone told him that the trench the next two years. They are asking to be Texas Observer burner would be no big deal... similar to a permitted to burn forty tons per day (and on her shelves. "big barbeque pit.") We researched big as you recall, this includes wood blocks, barbeque pits and found that they burn sawdust and glue). To locate the Observer about one ton of wood every two weeks. We have gained front page coverage in location nearest you, call O'Hair Shutters is wanting to be permitted the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal twice, 512/477-0746. to burn five tons EVERY HOUR, eight and have appeared on the news (every sta- hours per day, seven days per week. tion) several times. The public sentiment it TEXAS We have also asked the City to look at is supportive. zoning regulations and to determine that in- We went into mediation on Wednesday, hserver

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 3 glre Senate of g4e State of gexas 7871 1 ..414Stirip gexam

Letter to the Editor The Texas Observer 307 W 7th Austin, Texas

CHECK YOUR FACTS... For the record, Mr. McBee never "claimed It is true that environmental groups had Your recent editorial "Wild About Barry" that he had ordered his inspectors to provide brought questions to us. Early forms of the (Observer, February 28) is a good example advance notice before all on-site inspec- questions attempted to place sole blame on of the old adage that "when liberals are tions...." He stated that all routine annual in- McBee for many of the things at TNRCC under attack they pull their wagons in a cir- spections required advance notice, and that that were the direct result of actions by the cle and shoot inward." all other inspections, such as investigation of Legislature in 1995 which weakened envi- Your attack on us was not only shrill and, complaints, suspicion of violations, or ongo- ronmental laws, actions which Senators at points, unseemly, it is so factually in ing monitoring of a facility with past compli- Truan and Barrientos opposed in commit- error that it dishonors the tradition of the ance problems were without notice. Slightly tee. Once the questions were accurate, Sen- Texas Observer. And, if Louis Dubose can- more than half are unannounced. ator Barrientos sent them to McBee for a not present facts accurately, readers have to For the record, the statement "Senator written answer. He responded to all those question whether his conclusions are Barrientos, who in an exhaustive filibuster questions and ones developed orally during equally invalid. two years ago, at least attempted to throw the hearing. . For the record, Senate Republicans did his body in front of Senator Teel Bivins' Finally, while Mr. Dubose may have a not lead in protracting the nomination of `takings' bill" is incorrect. Senator Truan problem with Senator Barrientos asking Amy Johnson in 1993 to be Public Insur- filibustered the Bivins bill. A few days ear- Mr. McBee and Mr. Baker if they recycled, ance Council in order to exact promises lier Senator Barrientos did back-to-back fil- this directly followed a question by Senator from her. Her nomination was delayed by a ibusters on another bill. Brown on the issue and opened a series of Democrat angered over her public position For the record, Senator Lucio never told policy questions on public involvement, on credit life insurance. Mr. McBee, "he has done a great job since pesticides, and inter-basin transfers and For the record, the "insider's" questions the Governor appointed him" nor that the aquifer protection that was the most exten- you characterize Senator Truan as asking "Senate would be with him when his nomi- sive series of questions asked. about inter-basin transfers have enormous nation reached the floor." There is nothing About the only thing Mr. Dubose got economic and environmental impacts and in the record that indicates he ever said, completely right is that "if all of this were should not be dismissed. The Observer used with regard to rivers "isn't it wonderful not on tape somewhere, I would expect to give coverage to this very issue. McBee is keeping them clean." He did say, readers to challenge even this brief recapit- For the record, Senator Gallegos did not in reference to McBee and John Baker, ulation." It is on tape, and we certainly en- "ask McBee about the dismantling of pesti- whose TNRCC hearing was held simulta- courage others who were not present to re- cide protection rules designed to protect neously, "I have no doubt that in terms of view those tapes, for it certainly provides farmworkers," therefore the comment that background qualifications, both of you are the basis to challenge Mr. Dubose. "when McBee responded that because there highly qualified or else the Governor would Sincerely, was no federal mandate protecting farm- not have appointed you." Senator Lucio workers, he had eliminated their state protec- then closed after asking policy questions [Senators signing] tion to make the regulations uniform, Galle- about water quality in the Rio Grande, Gonzalo Barrientos gos didn't even wince" is completely false. shrimp farming, and the Channel Dam with Carlos Truan Senator Gallegos asked about Mr. McBee's a simple polite statement to both nominees Rodney Ellis role on behalf of 1995 legislation to elimi- that "While I am not a voting member of Eddie Lucio, Jr. nate the regulations. The legislation failed to this committee, but if your nominations get Royce West pass. Neither Mr. McBee nor his boss at that to the floor, you have my support." This is Mario Gallegos time, Agricultural Commissioner Rick consistent with a courtly demeanor Senator Gregory Luna Perry, have the unilateral authority to repeal Lucio maintains during most public hear- Judith Zaffirini a state law, so Mr. McBee could not have ings. It is hardly grounds to accuse him of a Frank Madla "eliminated their state protection." political form of a sex act. Eliot Shapleigh

4 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 EDITORIAL The Facts and the Truth The ten Democratic Senators who signed the letter on page four prove to be better fact-checkers than I ,am. As they note, there are several factual errors in my February 28 editorial on the Senate Nomina- tions Committees confirmation hearing on Barry McBee I regret the errors, which I will address below But the truth about McBee:s hearing is even more regrettable misunderstood the exchange between supposed to regulate knows that TNRCC therefore that Senator Armbrister needed Senator Mario Gallegos and Texas Chair Barry McBee has ended the practice the support of Republican committee mem- Natural Resources Conservation of "unannounced inspections." The main- bers to hold the nomination up. I now see Commissioner Barry McBee, 'con- stream environmental groups also know it that I was wrong. cerning McBee's assault on the laws that (call and ask at the local Sierra Club of- And instead of verifying which bill Sen- protect farmworkers from exposure to agri- fice). It's just embarrassing to hear that ad- ator Gonzalo Barrientos filibustered last cultural pesticides. I assumed they were mitted in a Senate hearing, and now the session, on the fly I cited the wrong one. discussing the formulation of rules at the Senate knows it. Or should. That was my mistake, and my error under- Department of Agriculture, where McBee I also know that "a Democrat angered mines the argument I was trying to make, worked as an assistant to Ag Commis- over her public position on credit life insur- which follows. Senator Barrientos has al- sioner Rick Perry. Senator Gallegos' ques- ance" held up the confirmation of Public ways been a defender of the environment tion pertained to legislation that the TDA Insurance Counsel Amy Johnson in 1993. in Texas. Senator Gallegos represents a and McBee supported—in particular an at- To be more specific, that Democrat was district that is dominated by petrochemical tempt to eliminate the legislative mandate giants, yet he is a consistent advocate of requiring that farmworkers are informed of THE TRUTH IS THAT THE NOMINATIONS environmental protections for the people the hazardous chemicals sprayed on fields COMMITTEE HEARING ON BARRY who live there. And Senator Carlos Truan where the farmworkers work. McBee re- MCBEE WAS AN EMBARRASSMENT is a true hero of the Texas environment. spond that federal law didn't guarantee THAT CREATED ONLY THE ILLUSION OF Because of his work, the air and water of farmworker protections, and the TDA was PUBLIC PROCESS. Karnes County is today far less contami- attempting to make state law consistent nated by uranium mine tailings than it was with federal law. My reporting was incor- Senator Ken Armbrister. The sale of credit ten years ago. To achieve that, the Senator rect, but like the Malathion sprayed on life insurance is often a predatory practice took on the several multinational minerals- South Texas row crops, McBee's answer that is very difficult to regulate. It is re- extraction giants and won. And his 15-0 doesn't wash. Federal law, in particular en- quired before furniture, appliance, or used record on environmental votes last session vironmental law, is intended to be broad car dealers will provide installment loans (and his filibuster against the "takings enough to cover fifty states, often leaving to working-class and working-poor con- bill") is hard evidence of his commitment to state legislatures the enactment of laws sumers. And because credit life policies are to real environmental protection. to address problems specific to the states. often sold by the same companies that sell It is precisely the records of these Sena- There's not much aerial application of pes- the products and make the installment tors that make the perfunctory nature of ticides in Rhode Island, but in Texas, farm- loans—and the policies pay nothing to the Barry McBee's confirmation hearing so workers need the protection Barry McBee consumer in the event of death or disabil- hard to understand. Here was an opportu- and Rick Perry vigorously attempted to ity—they look suspiciously like additional nity to use the nominations process to try to deny them. Last year, Senator Gallegos interest tacked onto the loans of the poorest extract a few promises from Conimissioner voted against House Bill 2843, which consumers. (Democrats will remember that McBee. To ask him if he would reinstate would have limited the TNRCC's ability to Republican gubernatorial candidate Clay- unannounced visits to polluting facilities. adopt rules or policies more stringent than ton Williams was sued because it was al- To require his agency to provide informa- federal requirements. And he is one of the leged that Hispanics. were disproportion- tion to legislators, perhaps rendering moot Senate's few defenders of the rights of ately represented among required credit several pending House Bills that attempt to working people. I assumed he would life accounts on car loans at a bank require the TNRCC to release information "wince" when he heard McBee's disingen- Williams owned.) Senator Armbrister was to members of the Legislature. To ask the uous attempt to explain his assault on farm- defending the credit life business of a Commissioner why he opposes new EPA workers and the environment—then would Democratic contributor in his district. I as- standards that would clean up the air in ten aggressively pursue the line of questioning sumed that the other Democratic members Texas cities. Representatives of 113 envi- he had begun with McBee. He didn't. of the Nominations Committee would not ronmental, labor, and consumer groups Everyone in the industries the TNRCC is support something like credit life, and asked that question on February 20, when

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5

• they delivered 1,000 letters of protest Senator Lucio's environmental record, to against a TNRCC policy they claim will the contrary, is astounding. Last session cause 2,617 deaths a year in Texas— alone he voted for: the "takings bill," de- mostly among children and the elderly. scribed by the Sierra Club as a "potential nightmare for environmental protection and 56,4).crape. here are facts—and there is also the other necessary government activities"; for a truth. The truth is that the Nomina- bill to weaken the state's air emissions in- Ttions Committee hearing on Barry spection program for motor vehicles operat- New. McBee was an embarrassment that created ing in polluted cities; for a bill that would only the illusion of public process. In their have seriously undermined the TNRCC of- letter, the Senators invite the public to come fice of public interest counsel; for a bill that to the Capitol to listen to the tapes of the would have required the TNRCC to perform proceedings. We'll do better than that. Send cost-benefit analysis on environmental rules us five dollars and we'll mail you the com- before the rules could be adopted; for a bill plete tapes. Our bet is that anyone who lis- that exempts from City of Austin environ- tens to them will conclude that the Senate's mental restrictions all developers building screening of the Governor's appointees is along the Barton Creek watershed; for a bill hardly a test of appointees' qualifications. that would have required opponents to prove The current process, in fact, is summed up that a TNRCC permit was a threat to public by Senator Lucio's comment at the Nomi- health, rather than requiring the applicants to nations Committee hearing. "I have no prove their projects are safe; for a bill that doubt that in terms of background qualifica- would have limited the TNRCC's ability to tions, both of you are highly qualified," adopt rules or policies more stringent than Lucio told the two political appointees on federal requirements; for a bill that would February 10. "If your nominations get to the have imposed a restrictive statute of limitaL floor, you have my support." tions on the prosecution of polluters; and for The Senators take issue with my com- a bill that limited the City of Austin's author- ment, "Any time the unctuous and dapper ity to use extraterritorial jurisdiction to pro- Senator Eddie Lucio gets close to anyone tect the environment outside the city limits. with any real economic or political power, Senator Lucio's 1-14 record on environmen- the Senator's going to violate the state's tal votes monitored by the Sierra Club is the sodomy law." They describe their colleague Democratic premier anti-environmental as "courtly." In fact, compared to Senator record for the last session. Lucio' s environmental record, that assess- Having voted to limit regulatory protec- ment is genteel. The Lower Rio Grande tion for his. constituents, Senator Lucio Valley district he represents is one of the then voted to limit their access to the poorest regions of the state. It also is one of courts. In particular, he voted for a measure the most chemically contaminated regions that limits plaintiffs' ability to collect in of the nation, where last year Brownsville lawsuits where there are multiple defen- lawyer Tony Martinez, representing sixteen dants—like the suit Tony Martinez settled families of children with chemical-related, that provides millions in compensation for I want to subscribe to the Observer. devastating birth defects like anencephalia, the families of anencephalic babies born in settled with local polluters for $17 million. the Senator's district. Lucio also supported NAME Granted, many of those polluters are Amer- a forum non conveniens measure that now ican companies operating in Matamoros prohibits Mexican families harmed by ADDRESS and Rio Bravo, on the Mexican side of the American companies from bringing those CITY, STATE, ZIP Rio Grande. But the combined effect of companies to justice into Texas courts. their pollution and similar pollution on the That was just one session's work. What ❑ 1 YEAR $32 2 YEARS $59 American side of the river is believed to be Senator Lucio does to his constituents ❑ 3 YEARS $84 responsible for numerous birth defects and brings to mind another sexual metaphor, al- ❑ though the Senator might argue that by vot- other serious health problems. A bold and ❑ CHECK ENCLOSED ❑ BILL ME creative public servant might have taken the ing for him, his constituents became con- lead in pressing American companies in senting partners. Senator Lucio' s Mexico to clean up, while supporting colleagues describe him as "courtly." If Austin, TX 78701 strong environmental legislation on the that voting record is courtly, then George 307 W. 7th St 512-477-0746 FAX 512-474-1175 Texas side of the river. Bush is Louis XIV. —L.D.

6 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 BAD BILLs ■ Legislation To Look Forward To . . . BY THE BAD BILLS GIRL Diesel Weasels copying the city's mapping software, the Nobody's Fault But Yours H.B. 1325 bill as it now stands might force journalists H.B. 1020 and S.B. 429 Sponsor: Rep. Mark Stiles (D-Beaumont) and others to pay for any access to govern- H.B. 1202 Patrons: Texas Motor Transportation ment maps, according to the Texas Daily Sponsors: Rep. Rob Junell (D-San Angelo) Association, National Association of Fleet Newspaper Association (TDNA). and Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock); Administrators, Texas Transit Association Meanwhile in Bastrop, a nonprofit water Reps. Tom Uher (D-Bay City), On behalf of well-heeled constituents like supply corporation has be6n harassed re- Judy Hawley (D-Portland), et al. Frito-Lay, the United Parcel Service, and peatedly by an individual who asks the cor- Let's say you work at Oily Oil Refinery, are local transit authorities, Stiles is proposing poration to compile massive amounts of employed by an electric subcontractor, and to excuse commercial and local government data for no apparent reason. So Armbrister after being injured on the job think you fleet vehicles from the requirement that they filed S.B. 480, allowing governmental bod- have causes of action against the electric use cleaner-burning alternative fuels. Noth- ies to charge salary and overhead fees relat- subcontractor and an Oily Oil plumbing ing too complicated about these bills—just ing to the provision of public information, subcontractor. Under the 1989 Texas some plain old industrial butt-kissing. S.B. and to deny requests that they prepare pre- Workers' Compensation Act, you can't sue 681 or H.B. 1325 would allow transit au- viously unassembled information. TDNA your employer (the electric subcontractor) thorities to continue using diesel fuel, and TPA are trying to get this one altered because you'll be getting such a generous which would in turn shift the burden of im- so that it applies only to "not-for-profit workers' compensation package from proving air quality to individuals. The fed- water supply companies without one dollar them—generally about enough to pay for eral Clean Air Act requires that states and of public funds," says TDNA's M.J. Nic- band-aids. Should you decide that that plum localities adopt measures to reduce air pol- chio. But anyone who receives public package won't quite fund your lavish retire- lution, so getting rid of restrictions on large- funds must provide its records to the pub- ment lifestyle in Bora Bora, you can sue the vehicle fleets would simply force the state lic, Nicchio says, and as of press time S.B. plumbing subcontractor—a third party. to resort to tougher car inspections, adop- 480 contradicts that: "Pick a page and H.B. 1020 and S.B. 429 would reduce tion of more costly "Phase II" gasoline, and we're against it." your potential reward by allowing the elec- various restrictions on transportation and tric subcontractor and the general contrac- parking. Such measures may be advisable Punish the Victims, Part XCVII tor (Oily Oil) to join in the lawsuit as de- in and of themselves—but the state should- H.B. 1364, S.B. 742; H.B. 1696; fendants and be assigned a percentage of n't adopt them just to subsidize UPS. H.B. 1500 the blame, but no liability for the injury— Sponsors: Rep. Glen Maxey (D-Austin), since they're already immune from damage None of Your Business Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound), claims under the workers' comp law. H.B. 960 Rep. John Culberson (R-Houston), "These bills allows subcontractors to es- S.B. 480 Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth (R-Burleson) cape much of the responsibility," says Dan Sponsors: Representative Will Harnett Here comes a slew of immigrant-policing Lambe, of Texas Citizen Action. (R-Dallas), Senator Ken Armbrister bills, singing the chorus to the new federal H.B. 1202 earned itself a Citizen Action (D-Victoria) welfare law like a pack of yipping terriers honorary nickname, "The Reckless From Harnett and Armbrister, a pair of at- surrounding a coon dog. To ensure that Landowner Protection Act," for provisions tempts to drive in thumbtacks with sledge- the state doesn't accidentally provide that would exempt property owners from hammers. To address two specific con- some service to an immigrant who isn't responsibility for injuries that take place on stituent problems, they've introduced bills entitled to it, Maxey's 1364 and Nelson's the premises. Currently a landlord or a that would reduce access to public informa- companion 742 would authorize the De- nursing home director who has some idea tion. Harnett's bill concerns Geographic partment of Human Services either to that crime may take place on the property Information Systems (GIS s)—computer track down any noncitizens who are erro- but fails to prevent it (for example, by fail- mapping and data software maintained by neously granted benefits and fail to reim- ing to install proper locks or check the government entities. Seems that in Irving, burse the state, or to set a private collec- criminal backgrounds of employees) can someone's been asking the city to hand tion agency on their trail. Wohlgemuth' s be held liable. over its mapping software for free, claim- 1500 would require people to show docu- H.B. 1202 would change the law so that a ing that the software is public information. mentation of citizenship or legal residence landlord is only liable if he "knows" a crime The city would like to reclassify the GIS as before they can receive any non-emer- is going to occur and does nothing to stop it. infrastructure and charge for its use. gency health care. And Culberson would Comments Lambe, "No one ever knows Though it seems reasonable to prevent, require the state to issue different-color when a crime is going to happen"—except say, competing software companies from drivers' licenses to noncitizens. when bills like these are voted into law. ❑

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 7 FEATURE ► The West Texas Waste Wars BY NATE BLAKESLEE In Austin in the early 1980s, Billy Clayton had just ended his tenure as Speaker of the House Ann Richards was the new state treasurer and Carl Parker and Chet Brooks were powerful state senators representing Southeast Texas. In Washington, Congressman Kent Hance represented a district on the other side of the state And in Andrews, one of the small West Texas oilfield towns Hance represented the bottom had dropped out of the oil business. rir he oil bust left Andrews resident Peggy Pryor, like many of her neighbors, out of work. A dozen years later, Peggy works in Odessa, and a new generation of Texas lawmakers has replaced the Old Guard, at least in elected office. But for Peggy and thousands of other West Texans, the Old Guard never really moved on. Instead, they've all become hired guns in the ongoing po- litical and corporate Waste War that threatens to bring radioactive waste into the heart of West Texas. Kent Hance, Carl Parker, and Chet Brooks are all registered lob- byists for Waste Control Specialists, the company operating a haz- ardous and toxic waste dump in Andrews County, near the New Mexico border. Since 1995, the company has been trying to expand into the highly lucrative industry of radioactive waste disposal. En- virocare of Utah, a major player in the fiercely competitive waste industry, has also purchased land in Andrews County, not far from Waste Control's huge excavated pits. Envirocare hired ex-Speaker Billy Clayton as its lobbyist and announced that it, too, intended to operate a radioactive waste dump in Texas. • Billy Clayton as Speaker of the House Alan Pogue And in far West Texas, the state's Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority (TLLRWDA) continues to pursue its own con- no access to dump facilities whatsoever. Unable to operate without tested effort to build a state-operated, "low-level" dump near the producing low-level waste, yet unwilling to fund safe, site-specific tiny town of Sierra Blanca in Hudspeth County. If the Authority's permanent disposal systems of their own, utility companies may site is approved, Sierra Blanca will become the repository for ra- soon find themselves overwhelmed by their own waste. dioactive waste from Texas—and for all so-called "low-level" ra- The origins of the current waste-dump meltdown lie in the late dioactive waste from Maine and Vermont, the two states that have '70s, when several states closed nuclear disposal facilities because signed a waste compact with Texas. Representing prospective of environmental violations. In some cases, waste was found buried clients of the Sierra Blanca dump are well-placed Texans; for exam- outside of trenches; in others, radiation had leaked into groundwa- ple, former Palestine representative Cliff Johnson lobbies for Texas ter and contaminated water supplies. Liquids were dumped ille- Utilities, operator of the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant (near gally, and contaminated equipment was stolen and sold off-site. By Dallas), and feminist heroine (and former Austin Rep) Sarah Wed- March 1979, the dumps in Illinois, Kentucky, and New York had dington is on the payroll of Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company. been closed. By mid-1979, South Carolina was receiving 90 per- cent of the nation's waste. IT NEVER GOES AWAY The industry got a real shock from the Three Mile Island disaster The closing of several leaking low-level radioactive waste dumps in Pennsylvania, and South Carolina refused to accept the massive during the last two decades has the nuclear industry worried. amounts of waste that would result from decommissioning the Thirty-nine states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, damaged reactor. Yet the Three Mile Island story also highlighted a currently share a single disposal site in Barnwell, South Carolina. Waste War paradox: no state government wanted to bear the polit- Eleven other states use the Hanford, Washington site, the only other ical and economic burden of becoming the nation's nuclear waste dump that accepts all types of low-level waste. For the twelve dump, yet few states wanted to be completely shut out of the lucra- month period that ended July 1, 1994, thirty-three states—which tive waste-disposal industry. together produce 43 percent of the nation's low-level waste—had In 1980 a federal law codified a compromise: states were

8 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 required either to take direct responsibility for their own waste or sewer sludge. Under a deal brokered by the now-defunct Texas to form regional compact agreements, in which one state voluntar- Water Commission, the town receives 250 tons of partially treated ily would serve as the host for the other signatories' waste. By Jan- sewage sludge by rail each week. When Jacobi and company came uary 1995, forty-two states had established nine compacts. But the to town, Sierra Blancans said enough is enough. "Between the poo- problem was easier to solve on paper than on the ground. Through- poo choo-choo and the radioactive waste dump," said life-long out the '80s and early '90s, only three locations in the country han- Sierra Blanca resident Bill Addington, "the state is turning us into dled commercial low-level waste: the Barnwell facility in South New England's pay toilet." Carolina, plus dumps in Hanford, Washington, and Beatty, Addington organized an opposition coalition, which linked Sierra Nevada. The leaking Nevada dump was closed three years ago, Blanca with Marfa, El Paso, and Alpine, and has attracted support when radioactive pollutants were discovered 357 feet below the from across the state—including opponents from Dallas-Fort Worth, desert surface—much deeper than scientists had thought possible, Austin, and Houston, cities through which the radioactive waste will according to the Los Angeles Times. While eleven new facilities be trucked. This coalition has joined Mexican officials from the bor- have been planned, only four states have gotten as far as selecting sites. And none has begun actual construction. Only two states, California and Texas, estimate completion before the year 2000. According to a 1995 U.S. General Accounting Office report, the main obstacle to the new dumps has been public opposition. In Illi- nois, public outcry resulted in review of the selected site by an in- dependent commission, which eventually recommended scrapping the site and re-starting the entire siting process. Michigan was ex- pelled from its compact when it concluded that its own environ- mental laws precluded locating the dump anywhere in the state. And after widespread civil disobedience, New York has had to re- peat the entire process at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. The national dump situation has accordingly raised the stakes in Texas. Diminished disposal space has forced the industry to spend two decades reducing its waste flow through compacting, recycling and, where possible, substituting less radioactive isotopes. Several feasibility studies (summarized in the 1995 GAO report) have demonstrated that there is not even enough waste for the eleven dumps now planned. In fact, more than two or three national dumps, according to the report, will drive fees so low that profit margins anticipated by states (and now private investors) will be A Sarah Weddington as State Rep File Photo threatened. This economic reality—and growing public resistance to new dumps—has raised the very real possibility that the next der states of Coahuila and Chihuahua and officials from nearly two dump permitted will become the nuclear waste repository for the dozen Texas cities and counties, to force a contested hearing of the whole nation, for decades to come. draft license already issued to the Authority by the Texas Natural With authorities in Texas predicting that its facility will be oper- Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC). ating in 1998, the eyes of the nation are on West Texas. As public opposition to the facility grew, public officials began to take notice. In a January 1993 letter to then-Governor Ann THE TEXAS WASTE WAR Richards, Democratic Representative Pete Gallego of Alpine com- In Texas, the process that promises to make the state the nation's plained of "a recognizable pattern by state government in gen- nuclear repository didn't begin yesterday. In 1983 the Legislature eral...of dumping every form of waste near the Rio Grande and its formed TLLRWDA, and directed the agency to find a suitable site people." At the time, Governor Richards had good reason to ignore to build and operate the state's low-level dump. Eight years and Gallego's complaint: she had just signed the Texas-Maine-Ver- thirty million dollars later, Authority director Rick Jacobi—for- mont compact. If Congress approves the compact—still uncer- merly a safety officer at the trouble-plagued South Texas Nuclear tain—it will bring Texas an initial $50 million to act as the host Project—was still looking. Turned away by public opposition in state, plus considerable income from utilities in Maine and Ver- county after county, Jacobi was finally ordered by the Legislature mont for years to come. to locate the dump in Hudspeth County, near the Mexican border. Proponents like Richards and industry lobbyist Sarah Wedding- Jacobi settled on the Fashkin Ranch, near the tiny town of Sierra ton have claimed that the compact is necessary, because it will pre- Blanca, in an area the Authority had earlier rejected on geological vent every state in the union from sending its waste to Texas. In re- grounds. The ranch is less than twenty miles away from the Rio ality, the compact does no such thing. Like most waste compacts Grande, in the state's most seismologically active region. Sierra formed under the 1980 law, the Texas-Maine-Vermont compact al- Blanca, a predominantly low-income, Mexican-American commu- lows a governor-appointed commission to contract to accept waste nity, had only recently become the recipient of New York City from any source, anytime, without legislative (or voter) approval.

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 Texas generates nowhere near enough waste on its own to fill a three-million-cubic-foot dump, and by its own projections TLLR- WDA could not survive without Maine and Vermont's waste. If that waste isn't sufficient, the client list could be expanded. A 1994 ana- lysis by the Houston Business Journal suggests that the Authority would open the facility to other states in order to keep it viable. Governor George Bush, who apparently shares his Democratic predecessor's enthusiasm for importing nuclear waste, has been promoting the compact since he took office in 1995, although early on he promised that Texas will not become the "nation's dumping ground." Shortly after Bush made that promise, Waste Control Specialists began an effort to bring radioactive waste to its private facility in Andrews County. During Bush's first legislative session in 1995, Waste Control founder Ken Bigham attempted to amend the Texas law that restricted disposal of low-level waste to state- operated facilities. With Waste Control investor Kent Hance lead- ing a team of lobbyists, the company persuaded Amarillo Republi- can Senator Teel Bivins to introduce the company's bill, which was fast-tracked through the Senate. Bigham and Hance touted An- drews County's superior geology—and its docile demography, which provided "unprecedented community support" for the pri- vate waste site. Andrews' business community and local newspaper initially did roll out the red carpet for Waste Control in 1991—perhaps because there was no mention of radioactive waste when the company first came to town. Henry Noel, of Eunice, New Mexico, the closest town to the facility's location, says many area residents now feel they were tricked. He has begun organizing Eunice residents to fight the dump. "Kent Hance assured us that they weren't in that A Carl Parker as State Senator File Photo line of business," said Andrews resident Peggy Pryor. dump. Although ARDT claims to favor no particular site, it has be- As Waste Control's lobbyists steered the bill through the closing come the de facto lobby for Rick Jacobi's Authority. In adminis- days of the session, Pete Gallego recognized the opportunity Waste trative hearings, ARDT representatives have testified in favor of Control offered his constituents in Sierra Blanca. Gallego amended the Sierra Blanca dump, and the group currently maintains an of- the Waste Control bill, adding language that would have moved the fice there, where it holds "informational briefings" for local citi- state's dump site to Andrews County. As the 1995 session was end- zens and the media. Supporting ARDT's position is Vermont Yan- ing, it looked like Bigham's legislative strategy would land him the kee Nuclear's lobbyist Deborah Goodell, who warned that a whole waste enchilada: a license to enter the industry and a good private company entering Texas' nuclear waste market would shot at becoming the operator of the state's compact facility. Rick threaten the compact bill in Congress. A May 1995 Governor's Of- Jacobi, sensing a threat to the Authority's existence, launched a fice Policy Council memo found in the. Authority's files brings the counteroffensive in the classic tradition of bureaucratic self-preser- Sierra Blanca site argument into sharper focus: it asked if the Gov- vation. In response to a governor's office query, Jacobi, whose own ernor had the "willingness to stand by while West Texas becomes agency had previously rejected sites in Andrews County because of the nation's dumping ground for waste that no one else will take, in the underlying Ogallala Aquifer, offered his opinion that Waste an area that the TLLRWDA rejected?" (Of course, the memo ne- Control's site would need "further study" before it could be ap- glected to mention that the Authority had originally also rejected proved for low-level radioactive waste. Waste Control protested the Sierra Blanca site.) and got an apologetic "letter of clarification" from the Authority, Near the close of the 1995 session, Bigham received what ap- according to the Dallas Morning News. peared to have been a fatal blow to his legislative initiative to build But Bigham soon found himself under attack from another di- a private nuclear dump in Andrews County. His own state repre- rection. The Advocates for Responsible Dumping in Texas sentative, Pasadena Republican Robert Talton, came out against (ARDT), the Orwellian-named contingent of pro-compact lobby- the bill. According to the Dallas Morning News, Talton and ists for Maine and Vermont, began pressuring the Governor to pre- Bigham had butted heads years ago when the two were police offi- serve the compact and the Sierra Blanca site. "Our position," ex- cers in Pasadena. Neither has been forthcoming about the details of plained ARDT spokesperson Eddie Selig, "is that the state needs to the dispute, and Talton insists that his opposition is based on the follow through on its policy direction of the past fifteen years." obvious "special interest" nature of the legislation. Whatever his Selig—who likes to soft-pedal the site controversy by insisting, motives, Talton steadfastly refused to play ball with Waste Con- "Let' S not call it a dump"—argues that there should be no private trol, despite heavy lobbying. by Kent Hance and his team. Waste

10 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 Control's plan unraveled in the closing days of the session, when Talton and House colleague Ray Allen accused Hance of offering jobs and campaign contributions in exchange for changing their positions on the bill. Hance denied everything, but the damage was done and the bill died. Round one had gone to the Authority. But Waste Control would not say die. Bolstered by an infusion of capital from Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, Bigham returned less thari a year later with a new strategy designed to appease both the Governor and the Authority: the company would pursue Department of Energy waste rather than commercially- generated waste. The potential benefits of the new strategy were huge: Waste Control could tap into the huge waste flow expected to accompany the decommissioning of U.S. military bases and supporting industry, and the company would become a federal contractor, theoretically not subject to state regulation. The Department of Energy does business with only one private radioactive waste disposal firm—Envirocare of Utah—but is at- tempting to expand its list of licensed private contractors to solve its own burgeoning waste problems. Envirocare is fully licensed by the state of Utah, and in correspondence with Texas legislators the federal government has said it will not enter into any agreement here without the state's blessing. So the final decision would be the Governor's. And Bush, it seemed, would inevitably say yes to Bigham's new partner, Harold Simmons—a good friend and finan- cial supporter, and the CEO of a multinational corporation with $25 million already invested in the project. Simmons' political contributions alone may have eroded much of Waste Control's real opposition. Between 1994 and June of A Kent Hance as Perpetual Candidate File Photo 1996, according to the Dallas Morning News, Simmons, Bigham and Hance (who is now Waste Control's board chair and has an op- the statutory authority to license a private facility, regardless of tion to buy 25 percent of the company) donated over $170,000 to where the waste originated. The implications for Waste Control Governor Bush and Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock. Simmons were obvious. Pearson's letter went even further, adding that as a had also discussed the issue with the Governor. "I basically told matter of policy the agency would be opposed to "any scenario or George that I was involved in the company as a major investor," arrangement" that involved state oversight of a private disposal Simmons told the Morning News, "and I wanted him to be aware facility. When asked directly how he would respond to Waste of it in case the issue ever came up." Control's proposed arrangement, Pearson confirmed that the an- For its part, Envirocare was not ready to surrender to a potential swer would be the same. new competitor. Before Waste Control even delivered its proposal to the DOE or the TNRCC, Envirocare Chief Executive Khosrow BIGHAM'S LAST STAND Semnani bought up Just before the beginning of the 1997 legislative session, the tide WASTE CONTROL'S PLAN UNRAVELED IN 880 acres of land again began to turn, this time in the direction of Waste Control. In THE CLOSING DAYS OF THE SESSION, near the Andrews late October of 1996, Utah was rocked by a major bribery/extor- WHEN TALTON AND HOUSE COLLEAGUE county site and fired tion scandal involving Envirocare and the former Director of the

RAY ALLEN ACCUSED HANCE OF OFFER- off a letter to the Utah Bureau of Radiation Control. On December 18, Bigham re- ING JOBS AND CAMPAIGN CONTRIBU- TNRCC ' outlining ceived tentative permission from the TNRCC to go ahead with his TIONS IN EXCHANGE FOR CHANGING his plan to go into Department of Energy proposal. In a carefully worded retreat from THEIR POSITIONS ON THE BILL. business in Texas his October letter, Dan Pearson acknowledged that a non-state- as—what else—a regulated DOE site was at least a legal feasibility, noting that if federal contractor for DOE waste. The TNRCC quickly rejected such a proposal were formally made it would require a policy de- Semnani's "so-called application," as Waste Control's spokesman cision by the TNRCC's three commissioners—all Bush ap- Joe Egan called the hastily assembled Envirocare proposal. But the pointees. effect of Semnani's application was to serve as a pre-emptive This was all the encouragement Bigham needed. On December strike against Waste Control, by forcing a TNRCC policy decision 20, Waste Control submitted its proposal to the DOE, this time before Bigham could fully develop his own plans. with an added twist. Texas Tech University would become the cap- In a terse letter dated October 18 of last year, TNRCC execu- tain of an "independent private-sector/academe oversight" group tive director Dan Pearson explained that the agency did not have that would first review and approve the company's application to

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11 the DOE and then, under contract to the federal government, offer continued oversight of the facility's operations. "We're offering a safe, creative solution to help solve the DOE's disposal problems," Bigham's press release read. So creative, it appears, that no one seems to know if it's legal. The company acknowledged in the text of the proposal that "there is no direct precedent" for the approach suggested by the company. The choice of Texas Tech is perhaps not surprising. The univer- sity has been rented by private interests in the past, so at least there is some precedent there. West Texans remember that Tech was the sub-contractor that received a $1.5 million grant to help MERCO Joint Ventures get the Sierra Blanca sludge operation permitted (with the help of former legislator and former state water board commissioner Cliff Johnson) in a record twenty-three days. "These are the folks that brought Texas the largest sewer dump in the world," said Marfa resident Gary Oliver. And Texas Tech's new Chancellor, John Montford, was one of the senators who helped Bigham get his first legislative effort through the Senate in 1995. In the sewage-sludge permit fight, Tech had some expertise to sell; at least its rangeland management programs created the illu- sion of expertise in dealing with soils and sludge. By its own ad- mission, the university has no experience with DOE licensure or radioactive waste disposal. "They're just piggy-backing on Texas Tech," says Representative Talton. Even TNRCC Chairman Barry McBee acknowledges reservations about the university's role. "I don't want to discount the abilities of Texas Tech, but there are ex- isting regulatory agencies in place," McBee said. The chairman Alan Pogue added, however, that the Commission has taken no official position A Chet Brooks as a State Senator on private companies disposing of radioactive waste in Texas. that Haggerty received campaign donation's from Ken Bigham, and from Senators-turned-WCS-lobbyists Chet Brooks and Carl SHOWDOWN IN AUSTIN Parker—all on the same day, and only a few weeks prior to the El Despite WCS's avowed efforts to steer clear of conflicts with the Paso meeting. Authority, old habits die hard. At a legislative agenda meeting of As late as mid-February, Joe Egan was still discounting the sim- El Paso city, county, and state officials held last December, a reso- mering conflict between Waste Control and the Authority. Egan lution opposing the Sierra Blanca site was unanimously approved. went so far as to suggest that a partnership might evolve between the According to those present, only one official wanted to request two entities, with Waste Control processing and treating waste to be specifically that the site be moved to Andrews County: El Paso disposed in Sierra Blanca. But at this point, the Authority and its sur- state representative Pat Haggerty. Ethics Commission filings show rogates are not ready to join any partnership. "Unless I've missed

c. • '74=1.

Op*, okesmen approximately 90 percent of tute for Energy and '..gliVii0Tir1144 trial firms, hospitals, universities, an the total radioactivity in the nation's low- search explains; the Nuclear Regulatory pharmaceutical manufacturers. Low-level level waste flow in any given year comes Conunission assigns to this category ev-- waste is often described by industry from nuclear power plants. erything from short-lived radio-isotopes spokespersons as consisting primarily of The misleading term "low-lever is used in research, to extremely deadly and "gloves, syringes, and booties"---in fact another topic the industry is reluctant to long lived substances commonly found in about 70 percent of the waste by volume discuss. Last month, Texas Low-Level reactor waste. Some of these isotopes— is from power plants, which dispose in Authority director Rick Jacobi told the such as plutonium, strontium-99, and ce- these dumps everything but spent fuel Senate Finance Committee that the haz- sium-137—remain hazardous for millions

rods. A 1993 report by the Washington, ardous life of low-level waste varies from of years. —N.B.

12 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 something," ARDT spokesman Eddie Selig said, any such coop- eration would be "news to [me]....Couldn't another com- pany handle the waste process- ing for the state?" Selig stopped short of mentioning that one of the Vermont utility lobbyists, Kraege Polan, also represents MX Technologies—which ac- tr5 A NEW cording to the governor's office pAY IN WISr has already expressed interest in TWAS,Wrni 711E wavilsa Of processing the state's waste. NEW !WV Waste Control's proposal to the 1INDEIZ 114 efillAlha OF DOE contained yet another neg- A NEW ative characterization of the UrsetY state's Sierra Blanca site, and Chairman McBee is beginning to worry that "the specter of what might be perceived as competing sides might cause people to have a [negative] reac- tion to the compact." On February 27 in . Austin, Waste Control laid its cards on the table at a hearing of the House Appropriations Commit- tee, as Representatives Pat Gary Oliver Haggerty and Talmadge Heflin, supported by Sierra Blanca Repre- game over which private interests will be rewarded the nuclear pie. sentative Pete Gallego, went after the Authority's funding. Ac- cording to the few observers at the early morning meeting, Jacobi egardless of the short-term political victor, the state of Texas never knew what hit him. Peppered by questions about the , iis not likely to emerge from the waste wars unscathed. Un- agency's bloated budget and questionable past expenditures, the Rike the oil and natural gas that fueled earlier legislative and Authority faced a weary committee grown unanimously impatient regulatory fights, once deposited in the earth the commodity driving with the issue. "They've expended a tremendous amount of time this struggle will never leave West Texas. Long after the contracts and resources," said committee chair Rob June11 (who also re- have been awarded and all the hired guns have been paid, Texans ceived a $1,000 contribution from Simmons last year), "and they will be living with the legacy of the nuclear industry. don't have much to show for it." Haggerty calculated that the When Ann Richards took office in 1988, she announced the agency had already spent $12 million on legal fees for only nine dawn of a New Texas. But the revolving door from the statehouse days' worth of actual hearings. The committee voted unanimously to the lobbyist's office has a way of ensuring that the Old Texas to defund the Authority. The Senate might still rescue the Author- never really leaves us—as Peggy Pryor, Bill Addington, and thou- ity's budget, or at least some of it. But the Authority now seems to sands of other West Texans understand. be on the ropes. Envirocare is also under siege. On December 8, "I'm not convinced that my water won't be contaminated," Pryor Waste Control filed pre-trial motions in Andrews and began depo- said. "It may be deep, but out here stuff seeps through the ground." sitions to determine if the company will sue Envirocare. Those de- On March 17 she led the town's first non-industry information meet- posed included Khosrow Semnani and Billy Clayton. ing on the dump, and she's clearly an excellent candidate for the job. As for the Texas-Maine-Vermont compact, its fate in Congress Far better than the waste profiteers and their hirelings in Austin, Pryor remains uncertain. Delayed three times by public opposition, the understands the nature of both the land and the people. And in the compact bill was recently reintroduced, this time co-sponsored by end, as she says, "that's West Texas, you know." Land and people. ❑ twenty-two members of the House—Republicans Joe Barton and Tom DeLay lead a bi-partisan team that includes such Texas Nate Blakeslee is a freelance writer based in Austin. For the past Democrats as Ken Bentsen, Gene Green, Eddie Bernice Johnson year, he has been active as a volunteer for the Sierra Blanca Legal and Sheila Jackson Lee. According to the El Paso Times, however, Defense Fund (512-447-8906). This article was supported partly El Paso Congressman Silvestre Reyes has recently come out by a grant for environmental coverage from the Wray Foundation. against the compact. It remains to be seen whether the fight will Research assistance was provided by the Conspiracy of Equals turn on environmental principle—or become simply another shell corporate research seminar, conducted at the Info Shop in Austin.

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 FEATUREI The Ober-Hammer: Tom DeLay Online BY MARK MURRAY U.S. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay didn't get his nickname "the Hammer" for his carpentry skills; he got it for his ability to pummel lobbyists for money. But the nickname also aptly describes the Sugar Land Republicani's talent for delivering blows to his political opponents. or instance, The New Republic reported the Whip's o is this cyber-politics as usual? You might think that all harsh attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency members of Congress use the World Wide Web to lash out at (the "Gestapo of government," he called it) and Presi- S their opponents. But it turns out they don't. Take Senate Mi- dent Clinton's 1996 State of the Union address. ("I was nority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, for example. He so shocked I couldn't even boo," said DeLay. "I've maintains his web page (www.senate.gov/member/sd/daschle/) never seen such a performance. I got knots in my stom- solely for constituent services, information about South Dakota, F1 and access to his press releases. U.S. Representative Lloyd ach watching the president of the United States look straight into the eyes of the American people and lie.") And National Public Doggett, the often confrontational and outspoken Democrat from Radio, in an interview last month with DeLay, captured the Whip's Austin, also uses his web site (www.house.gov/doggett/) only as a caustic rhetoric against Clinton's recent proposals for public benefit for constituents. According to Doggett, his web page is school standards and campaign finance reform. "just another way to listen to folks at home and to make Texans Leaping into cyberspace, the Hammer has also taken his partisan more aware of the services [he] can provide." Idaho Republican rancor on-line. On his TRUIVAIWATAIK Netscap e: The I) Files _'=__ -r # Congresswoman Helen Majority Whip World Wide Web Chenoweth, like DeLay, is page (located at http://majority- act1§. At0040,I known for her own abrasive :0661 h ttp :/ /majority whip .house .gov idfiles Mfiles.htm whip.house.gov), DeLay has cre- rhetoric, such as her "endan- Yfl+at's News i What 5 Cool? 1 Handbook j .Net Search; E N ated a site called "The D-Files"— gered salmon bake" fundraiser a play on the popular sci-fi TV and a promotional shirt that pro- show, "The X-Files"—to take ad- claims "Earth First!—We'll log ditional shots at Clinton and the the other planets later." Yet Democrats. Web-surfers are Chenoweth uses her web greeted by the D-Files' logo, and page(www.house. the announcement "The Truth is gov/chenoweth/) only for con- stituent services, access to leg- in Here." With another mouse click, viewers enter DeLay cy- opotiineilt ?1,710 islative information, and a de- berspace: "Welcome to the D-Files! You don't need to be an FBI scription of Idaho. Even Newt Gingrich himself doesn't use his Special Agent to know that much of today's liberal rhetoric is 'out of web page (www.house.gov/gingrich/) for partisan stone-throwing. this world!' This site is dedicated to debunking many of these fantas- Not only is DeLay's web site aberrant for its fierce rhetoric, but it is tic stories by using facts to cut through the 'smoke and mirrors' ap- also distinguished by its use of dubious "facts," despite its declaration proach used by these unscrupulous individuals." that "The Truth is in Here." For example, in its praise of the 104th Within the site, one D-File labels the Democratic critics of the Congress, DeLay's page claims that the GOP Congress passed legis- GOP-controlled 104th Congress with epithets usually reserved for lation to "end welfare as we know it twice," and that Clinton vetoed comic-book villains ("the guardians of gridlock," "masters of dis- every effort. Unfortunately for DeLay's claims (and welfare recipi- aster," "the stalwarts of the status quo"). It then trumpets the ents), on August 22, 1996, the president signed a welfare "reform" bill achievements of the 104th Congress compared to the "politics as handed to him by the 104th Congress. The site, moreover, lists the Re- usual," Democratic-controlled 103rd Congress, citing such Repub- publicans' accomplishments in fighting crime, while claiming that the lican-supported legislation as the line-item veto, telecommunica- Democrat-controlled 103rd Congress just "spent more money on so- tions reform, cuts in government spending, ethics reform, and the cial programs like midnight basketball." The D-Files, however, ne- Safe Drinking Water Act. glect to mention that the 103rd passed a law authorizing $30.2 billion Another D-file attacks President Clinton directly, enumerating over six years to fund police, prisons, and crime prevention. It set aside his reversals on issues like affirmative action,, welfare reform, term only a fraction for the midnight basketball program. limits, and inhaling marijuana—and features a computerized Not surprisingly, Tom DeLay has taken governmental World graphic showing Clinton's head flip-flopping every half second. Wide Web pages to a new, low level. Unlike other outspoken leg- One file spends several paragraphs tritely accusing Clinton of islators, DeLay has designed a web site to sink his teeth into his op- being a tax-and-spend liberal; yet another (a bit belatedly) attacks ponents—even to the point of stretching or falsifying the facts. the imagined evils of an increase in the minimum wage. Coming from the Hammer, should we expect anything less? ❑

14 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 Ad courtesy of BERNARD RAPOPORT American Income Life Insurance Company Chairman of the Board and EXECUTIVE OFFICES: P.O. BOX 2608, WACO, TEXAS 76797, 817-772-3050 Chief Executive Officer

SERVICE CAME FIRST (My remarks on expiration of my six-year term as a U.T Regent, including my four years as Chairman) BY BERNARD RAPOPORT

t has been a wonderful ride! Six years in which one is The thought quickly came to mind; six conservatives, given a magnificent opportunity to contribute to what is three liberals, what is going to happen? Immediately, Iso vitally important—the education of youngsters. Ser- during this first meeting, I recognized that service on the vice on the Board of Regents is a serious challenge to any- board required putting ideology aside, and focusing on one who accepts the appointment. what we were really about—the mission to which I have This is not the time or place to recount the accomplish- alluded. That is the way this board works, and it is to the ments or failures during one's tenure. There is a record credit of all with whom I have served that no one has ever and it speaks more loudly than words. wavered in recognizing that service came first. It gave me For me, the experience on the Board has been wonder- an opportunity to return a little to an institution to which fully exciting! I have learned so much. I guess the most I owed so very much. important thing is that you can work with people from all I know that all who have been in service to an institu- different walks of life with seemingly different—yes, even tion such as the U.T. System would like to make refer- opposite—points of view. When there is a common pur- ence to the great things that have been accomplished. pose, somehow differences diminish, almost disappear. For me, I am satisfied with Mother Teresa's response There is a congealing of a singleness of effort to achieve in when being awarded the Nobel Prize and the panegyrists a committed way what is best for the institution. My six exclaimed the great things she had done in her unique years have indicated that it doesn't make any difference if way. She paralyzed that audience with a simple state- one was liberal, conservative, or in-between when it ment, "We don't do great things; we do little things with comes to the University of Texas System and its compo- great love." nents. Those individual predilections were dwarfed by the All those with whom I have served have been imbued acceptance, by one and all, of the singleness of purpose in with this philosophy; we didn't want to shake up the making certain that those who were in attendance at U.T. world; we just wanted to make sure that the youngsters System schools would get a great education. who were in attendance at the institutions that comprise Theodore Roosevelt could have had my fellow regents the U.T. System had an opportunity for a great education. in mind when he said, "A blind and ignorant resistance to The four years I have spent as Chairman have been every effort for the reform of abuses and for the readjust- wonderful and as I turn the gavel over to another, I do it ment of society to modern industrial conditions repre- in the spirit that it is so poignantly expressed by William sents not true conservatism, but an incitement to the L. Shirer, with a leveling reminder that we are, indeed, all wildest radicalism; for wise radicalism and wise conser- replaceable: "Faith in immortality was born of the greed vatism go hand in hand, one bent on progress, the other of unsatisfied people who make unwise use of the time bent on seeing that no change is made unless in the right that nature has allotted us. But the wise man finds his direction." I remember the first Regents' meeting I at- lifespan sufficient to complete the full circle of attainable tended. Louis Beecherl was chairman. Tex Moncrief, pleasures, and when the time of death comes, he will Robert Cruikshank, Tom Loeffler, Mario Ramirez and Sam leave the table, satisfied, freeing a place for other guests. Barshop were on the board. Then three new appointees— For the wise man, one human fife is sufficient, and a Ellen Temple, Zan Holmes and myself. stupid man will not know what to do with eternity."

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15 'Au

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POISONOUS APPOINTMENT. As reported her client. "Just because she represented maintained, the Grand Kleagle of the in Political Intelligence March 14 ("Hen- Elf Atochem in a lawsuit in our adversar- Klan in Germany and, he once said, all house Needs Fox"), the Texas Senate ial system," Ogden said, "does not mean Europe. Whether or not he was the leader found little to object to in Governor she would act against the public interest of the Klan in Europe is not the question. Bush's appointment of Houston lawyer on the Parks and Wildlife Commission." He claimed he was, and seems to have or- Carol Dinkins to a seat on the state's Ogden believes Elf's role in the pollution ganized the Klan from scratch in Ger- Parks and Wildlife Commission. Dinkins case "has about zero to do with whether many—a fact that becomes somewhat was confirmed 27 to 3, despite questions or not Dinkins should be appointed." more significant in light of this police raised about potential conflicts of interest Following the Observer's initial in- shooting two weeks ago. [A member of the over the role played by her law firm, Vin- quiries, Ogden called O'Connor and tried German branch of the "White Arian [sic] son & Elkins, in representing corporate to convince him. "Basically, we agreed to Resistance" and, according to one paper, clients in permit matters before the Com- disagree," said O'Connor later. "I don't the "Ku Klux Klan"—was arrested re- mission. When Dinkins insisted that she understand his position. The work that cently in Berlin for shooting a left-wing would recuse herself from any decision V&E does in protecting corporations from bookstore owner with an American sawed- directly involving V&E, Senator Carlos having to answer for their environmental off shotgun (he lived but lost both hands), Truan responded, "You cannot separate actions does speak against the nomination and for shooting two police officers (one Carol Dinkins from the law firm." of Dinkins. It is just hard to believe that a died and one is severely injured).] There are apparently additional reasons a corporate lawyer is not going to have that "You also wrote that [Kachel] was a Parks and Wildlife Commissioner might same mindset—of the corporate polluter member while 'a young serviceman' in want to be separated from the giant Houston as the poor victim, and of the citizens im- Germany. He was twenty-seven, and no law 'firm. In supporting her nomination, pacted by the company's negligence as young pup. I wouldn't call positions peo- Bryan Senator Steve Ogden praised Dink- some kind of trouble-causing radicals." ple have at twenty-seven youthful indis- ins and V&E for their work in alleviating ar- Mark's father, Dr. Rod O'Connor, has cretions. Even if it were in one sense true, senic contamination problems at the Elf also worked actively on the Bryan arsenic it lets Kachel off the hook for the thou- Atochem plant in Bryan. But according to issue, and told the Observer that he met sands of racist attacks in Germany that local activist Mark O'Connor of College with Ogden, who told him he may have occur every year, partly because of the or- Station and Neil Carman of the Sierra "said too much" in praising Elf Atochem ganizations and structures that he set up! Club—who worked hard to bring these seri- and V&E on the Senate floor, but that he "The Klan here in Germany was affili- ous and ongoing environmental problems to did believe Dinkins should not be blamed ated with the skinheads and other violent light—V&E's main role in the affair has for everything her law firm may or may groups of Neo-Nazis from the very begin- been to assist Elf Atochem in avoiding any not have done concerning environmental ning, and it was Kachel who did the recruit- responsibility for the pollution. issues. O'Connor said that Ogden has ing. The German members of Kachel's O'Connor, who says he supported promised to set up a meeting with Klan were drawn from these other groups, Ogden's election last fall, wrote the Sena- TNRCC officials to discuss the continu- and the groups they belonged to have killed tor a blistering letter about the Elf ing pollution problems concerning the Elf a sizable number of foreigners in this coun- Atochem affair and V&E' s role in it. Call- Atochem plant. "I think Ogden's going to try in the last few years. They are armed, ing Ogden's defense of V&E "untrue, be very helpful," said O'Connor, "work- dangerous and live in the cities. They are misleading and damaging," he said hoped ing to make sure the TNRCC does what not the country bumpkins some Americans that the Senator had been misinformed. needs to be done to address the continu- may associate with the Klan. The police Rrtit!, O'Connor went on to describe V&E's role ing problems—he said he would do so, shooter...lived in the center of Berlin....He in perpetuating the "myth" that Elf and I see no reason to doubt him." told the police that he had acted in self-de- tr, Atochem had only "inherited" the pollu- fense when he shot the two cops, because tion from their predecessor company, MORE ABOUT KKKACHEL. Observer the state was after him (Oklahoma bomb- Pennwalt, instead of perpetuating the correspondent Ayn Miller, who reported ing logic). The bookshop owner in a left- problem for years in its own name. "This on the Murry Kachel Klan connection wing quarter of Berlin has left the hospital, continuing dissemination of false and mis- from Germany ("Val Verde's 'Exalted and seems to be OK—except for the fact leading information," wrote O'Connor, Cyclops'," February 14) has followed the that he lost both hands and a part of one "is just one of the things that Ms. Dinkins' continuing tale, particularly Kachel' s arm. I haven't heard anything about the law firm has been very good at," and he public change of heart and "confession" second policeman." accused Atochem and V&E of mutually to his past misdeeds (once they had been "stonewalling" any attempt at remedial exposed in the Observer). Miller notes, MEXICO ATTACKS! And the winner of this action against the arsenic pollution. however, there is much more to the story month's Alarmist Public Official award is Asked about the letter, Ogden said his than Kachel has thus far admitted. She Kenedy County Commissioner Tobin defense of Dinkins' nomination rested writes, "Kachel was not 'a member' of Armstrong, who recently urged the Justice upon the distinction between a lawyer and the Klan in Germany, but was, as he Department to let local law officers appre- 9,17PROTINI"' hend undocumented immigrants, in order to stave off a possible "outbreak of some deadly plague." "The environmental situa- The 1997 PEN Texas Awards ceremony was held March 12 in Dallas, recognizing tion they are creating is appalling," Arm- some of the best poetry, essays, and fiction written in Texas last year Rod Davis, strong, a rancher, told a meeting of com- former Observer editor and a frequent contributor, won the essay category for his missioners and Border Patrol officials. piece, "The Fate of the Texas Writer," published in the July 26, 1996 issue of the "They are breaking into houses, they are Observer. Pam Lange of Dallas placed first in the poetry category, for her poems, breaking irrigation lines to drink, and there "The Dig," "Summer Whites," and "Lost in the Forest near Nacogdoches." And in are wide paths, all littered with garbage, the category of Novelistic Writing, Cindy Bonner of Yorktown won first place for going through our pastures." As reported an excerpt from her novel, Too Close to Heaven. The ceremony was hosted by in the San Antonio Express-News, Arm- Robert Compton, Book Pages Editor of the Dallas Morning New,s, and the judges strong and his fellow commissioners seek were Tim Redman, Rainer Schulte, and Robert Nelson, all faculty at the University to authorize Kenedy County law officers of Texas at Dallas. under a provision of the Illegal Immigra- PEN is the international association of writers created in 1921 by George Bernard tion Reform and Immigration Responsibil- Shaw, John Galsworthy, and Joseph Conrad, which promotes literacy and defends ity Act of 1996, which allows the attorney freedom of expression around the world. general to extend immigration-enforce- ment powers to local police. "If we could take this new piece of legislation and act Act in the case of information relating to cording to his spokesman Tony Rudy. He's on it, we might avoid something terrible, potential litigation. also set his sights on William Wayne Jus- like a massive accident or an outbreak of Smith found his original plaintiffs by tice, the hero of Texas prison reform. some deadly plague," said Armstrong. acquiring a list of rejected applicants and Frivolous impeachment—better than .then writing to them. After the 5th Circuit Christmas in Katy. POVERTY WAGES AT U.T. While lawmak- ruled in Smith's favor, the U.S. Supreme ers are setting another two-year budget for Court refused to hear the case because the ALLIANCE REPORTS. "We stand against state universities, two U.T.-Austin library admissions procedures in question were the resignation that is pervasive through- workers have gone public with complaints no longer in use by the university. Now out western culture. The American people about their salaries—or lack thereof. Staff that the district judge has cleared the way, know that this is a corporate-dominated salaries are so low that some employees Smith will presumably start soliciting society. We don't have to tell them, they qualify for food stamps and university- again, if he hasn't already. And presum- know it. They really know it. Their prob- sponsored charity programs, reports the ably he'll file a suit that involves the cur- lem is they don't know what to do about Austin-American Statesman. Glen Dolfi, a rent admissions procedure—but given the it. That's their problem. That's, our prob- 1977 U.T. graduate who, having worked "race-blind" policy mandated as the result lem." —Larry Goodwyn full-time at the main library for five years, of Hopwood, this round will be harder "I want to tell you something about earns $11,652 a year, and Dan Orozco, who going for Smith. freedom fighting that I learned from peo- makes $18,000 as a supervisor, have ap- ple far wiser than I am: You've got to proached the Faculty Council with infor- DELAY GETS EXCITED. U.S. Representa- have fun while you're fighting for free- mation about salaries. According to U.T. tives Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) and dom. For one thing, we don't always win, President Robert Berdahl, the university's Sam Johnson (R-Plano) have hit upon a and it might get to be the only fun we'll top priority during the legislative session is brilliant plan to make the world more Re- ever have. And secondly, it does keep you to get more money to pay faculty and staff. publican—by impeaching federal judges from giving in to either despair or insan- whose decisions they disagree with. John- ity."—Molly Ivins HOPWOOD REDUX. It looks as if Hop- son, reports the Texas Lawyer, is drawing The Alliance for Democracy has just wood plaintiffs' attorney Steven W. up impeachment papers for U.S. District issued its 107-page "Report of the Found- Smith is gearing up for another lawsuit, in Judge S. Fred Biery. After presiding over ing Convention," which includes a sum- hopes of making it to the Supreme Court the preliminary hearing in the Val Verde mary of last's November's proceedings in this time. And he's been given a boost by voting rights case last January, Biery the Hill Country, key organizing docu- Travis County District Judge Jeanne ruled to keep the Democratic incumbents ments, and additional articles, including Meurer, who ruled in February that Smith in office pending the result of the upcom- transcripts from the speeches, such as the is entitled to the names of whites and non- ing state election contest. passages quoted above. Send $10.00 (in- preferred minorities who were denied ad- It's not quite clear which impeachable of- cludes postage and handling) to Alliance mission to U.T. Law School in 1995 and fense Biery committed—the choices being for Democracy, P.O. Box 683, Lincoln, 1996. The university denied Smith's pub- "treason, bribery, or other high crimes or MA 01773. Make checks payable to lic information request last September, misdemeanors"—but nonetheless DeLay Alliance for Democracy. Telephone:

citing an exception to the Open Records "is excited about" impeaching judges, ac- (617) 259-9395. ❑

/ 47, q. thll wimp Awl"' - WinFORfiggN,' Migt 4110 . V • 'Amp 111. gt; %NW. ,la Jyl 73157;„"-Frerh /1'T /I/4 MOLLY IVINS What Did B. Rapoport Want? The proverbial visitor from Mars landing in Washington last week would have had no trouble concluding that the fruitcakes have taken over the loony bin.

he Senate confirmation hearings on where. The right has been making a mighty and supported when Wright came home in Anthony Lake's nomination as stink over the news that after Web Hubbell "disgrace." Never asked for anything from head of the CIA looked like the left Washington and before he got sent to at least a dozen Texas liberals I can think of Troller derby. Some crackpot con- the hoosegow on charges of fraudulent off the top of my head who were felled in gressman from the Midwest was foaming at overbilling (which appear to be the result electoral combat and needed jobs. Never the mouth about "lesbian pornography" at of a strange family feud), some people who asked for anything from the Observer, the National Endowment for the Arts, are known "associates" of Clinton pro- which he generously supported for years. which keeps funding clog dancing in an vided money and employment to Hubbell. B. heard that Hubbell's kids, who were effort to avoid controversy. Meanwhile, Hush money! pronounced the conspiracy bright enough to get accepted at Stanford another bunch of fun Republicans was lay- buffs. Hubbell knows something that will University, would have to drop out of ing plans to impeach federal judges who bring down Clinton, so Clinton arranged school. Rapoport, who until recently was have made decisions they do not like. for his friends to pay Hubbell off. Ken chairman of the University of Texas board This year's budget deal became unstuck Starr's prosecution team called in these of regents, believes in education with a fer- over a two:year-old memo written by a guy benefactors and grilled them for hours: vor that only the son of a Russian-immi- no longer with the administration. The plan What was the payoff? grant peddler can manage. He not only to balance the budget is largely based on a Then, I saw who was on the list of those picked up the tuition tab—he put Hubbell scheme to cut cost-of-living increases for on retainer for the insurance company he pensioners—a scheme that the Old Repub- ONE OF MY HOBBIES IS KEEPING A built himself from nothing. licans (of two years ago) would have de- RUNNING COUNT ON THE PEOPLE WHO And what did he want? He's already nounced as a "gimmick" and "smoke and HAVE BEEN HELPED BY B. RAPOPORT; been invited to the White House so many Mirrors" anyway. As Senator Tom Daschle I EVEN KNOW ABOUT SOME HE HAS times that he can't remember. He has al- put it, the goal of the R's "continues to be a LONG SINCE FORGOTTEN. most as much money as God. He's not run- huge tax break for people who don't need it, ning the insurance company anymore, so paid . for with spending cuts from people helping Hubbell out and started laughing. he can't use business favors. who.can't afford them." Senator Trent Lott, In case you've never run across him, I have a life-size vision of B. Rapoport who is not the sharpest pencil in the box, Bernard Rapoport is the only Jewish, so- explaining all this to Ken Starr's office. I said that President Clinton lacks courage cialist insurance millionaire in Waco, bet a million it sounded like this: and leadership because he won't winkle bil- Texas. He is also a force of nature—loud, "You — people don't understand a - lions away from senior citizens. blunt, profane, bull-headed. He talks a mile - thing. I wound up rich because I'm smart Bring back Leon Panetta. a minute; he's twice as smart as the average and I worked hard. There's a million people The White House was plagued by myste- bear—and, I confess, a man I love dearly. smarter than me who worked harder and rious "failures to communicate"—who What did B. Rapoport want or expect in wound up with nothing. Why shouldn't I knew what and when did they know it con- exchange for helping out the president's help them? Whattaya think I am, some cerning some scheme that may or may not friend Web Hubbell? Nothing. I know be- like Donald Trump? Here's a guy, this exist concerning efforts by the Chinese cause one of my hobbies is keeping a run- Web Hubbell guy, he gives up the big- (mainland or Taiwanese—it's a little un- ning count of the people who have been money job, he goes to Washington, he tries clear) to influence the American elections helped by B. Rapoport; I even know about to help straighten out the country and for a purpose that is also unclear. Or it may some he has long since forgotten. One of he winds up broke and under indictment. Am have been some other kind of Asians having the many subsets of B.'s generosity is peo- I supposed to treat him like a leper just to do with China, but then again, it may be ple who have been chewed up and spit out because he screwed up? And what about his just some fast-talking self-promoters, you by the vagaries of political "morality" in kids? What about their education? If you - see? The press is busy huffily demanding this country, starting at least as far back as - Republicans had ever tried to do a straight answers about all this. the late John Henry Faulk, who was black- thing about justice in this country, about 71 By way of rational response, Congress listed in 1954. And B. never asked for a opportunity in this country, El decided to Git Tuff on. Mexico. thing in return. Now, here's a little lesson for all . you Never asked for a thing from former Molly Ivins, a former Observer editor, is Clinton-haters who have gone so far around House Speaker Jim Wright, either, whom a columnist for the Fort Worth Star- the bend that you see conspiracy every- he supported when Wright was in power Telegram.

18 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 JIM HIGHTOWERI Mickey's Minions Let's all sing the Mickey Mouse Club theme song: "M-I-C (Sep were everywhere) K-E-Y (Why? Be- cause we make money)...H-A-I-T-] Mickey Haiti..Mickey

ickey Mouse in Haiti? Yes, but reaucratic nightmare for those on it, and the other high-flying brokerage houses. the Disney empire is not there most welfare moms would much prefer a If you're a typical American, you have to amuse the locals—it's there good job. been lucky just to stay afloat in the '90s, but to abuse them. In this poverty- But there is the sticky part. Bill and Newt these Wall Streeters are averaging $54,000 Mstricken nation, Disney Inc. is working punted them off welfare, but where are the in bonuses this year. Never mind that through a subcontractor to get cute little jobs? We already have at least 35 million eighty percent of Americans don't get that children's clothes made featuring Pocahon- folks unemployed or underemployed, and much in total pay, this handful of hotshots tas, Mickey and other Disney characters. now here come about a million more low- in New York City are splitting $8 billion in You can buy a delightful Pocahontas t-shirt wage workers to join the search. Even if bonuses, with those at the top really mak- for your tyke for about twelve bucks. Less they find a job, they can't afford day care ing a killing. At Goldman Sachs, for exam- delightful, though, is the fact that the for their children, nor do most of them have ple, the firm's 200 partners have just paid Haitians who sew that shirt for Disney get transportation to get to work and back. themselves bonuses of between $4 and $8 about four cents for it. Indeed, they earn less Not to worry, proclaimed the President million each. than eleven dollars a week, which is a sub- in his state of the union address, because I In Manhattan, 25-year-old stock manip- poverty wage even in this nation of poverty. have a plan to get jobs for all of these ulators are strutting into auto showrooms Pocahontas in a sweatshop? Yes, and moms. Bill's scheme is a new, $3-billion-a- and buying $179,000 Lamborghinis and that's why an investment group called Pro- year subsidy program to give up to $10,000 other luxury toys, while 30-year-old invest- gressive Asset Management has filed a to corporations for each welfare mother ment bankers are buying two-million-dol- shareholder resolution to stop Disney's they hire. lar condos in the Trump Tower. What do management from continuing the exploita- Hello. Has he not just shifted our tax dol- these geniuses contribute to our economy tion. The P.A.M. resolution calls on Disney lars from family welfare to corporate wel- and society that warrants such extravagant to assure shareholders and us customers fare? Must these corporations at least act re- payouts? They spend their days on such that employees who work for Disney sup- sponsibly by paying a living wage to the productive enterprises as "playing" the pliers "are guaranteed basic rights...health- mothers? No, no, minimum wage is fine—a market, "betting" that our currency will fall ful working conditions, a sustainable com- wage that keeps them mired in poverty. in relationship to the Japanese yen, "hus- munity wage and a work environment free Surely, the corporate welfare recipients have tling" corporate junk bonds and, as one of child labor and abuse." to keep these low-wage, subsidized workers sharpie explained to The New York Times, Who could be against that? Michael Eis- on the payroll for a minimum period. Non- "I trade big positions in small companies ner, the big cheese at Disney Inc., first tried sense—once Clinton's subsidy ends, the and terrorize the chairman" (February 12, to keep P.A.M. from being allowed to raise company can punt the workers at will! 1997). In other words, they produce noth- this "delicate" issue at the annual stock- In his State of the Union speech, Clinton ing. Mostly, they gamble with other peo- holders meeting. That did not seem sporting singled out Monsanto, Sprint, United Air- ple's money, filching fat fees whether the to Mickey Mouse fans, though, and bad lines, UPS and AT&T for being the first to gamble pays off or not. publicity forced Eisner to call off his legal sign up, and the Republican Congress ap- The Powers That Be keep insisting that beagles. To find out how you can help, and plauded this news enthusiastically, as our economy is "robust," citing a rise in av- to learn more about P.A.M.' s shareholder though these firms were being altruistic, erage income as proof. But they're averag- activism, call 1-800-786-2998. (Sources: rather than simply getting in a new corpo- ing your income with these multimillion National Labor Committee, and Progres- rate welfare line. dollar, Wall Street bonus babies. Through sive Asset Management, Inc.) Great. Washington has taken us from such a numbers game, they can pretend that welfare for the needy, to welfare for the the economy is doing well, even when most BILL'S WELFARE SCAM greedy. of us are not. If hypocrites could fly, politicians would be That's not a healthy economy; it's a dan- jumbo jets. BILLIONS FOR SPECULATORS gerous one. ❑ Last year, Bill Clinton and Newt Gin- Did you get your bonus yet? grich, shouting that they were "ending wel- They did on Wall Street. January to Jim Hightower is a former Observer editor fare as we know it," locked arms to shove March is bonus-paying season for the spec- and Texas Agriculture Commissioner. His hundreds of thousands of welfare mothers ulators and hustlers who pull off the slick nationwide radio show broadcasts daily into the job market. Fine, welfare is a bu- deals at Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns and from Austin, Texas.

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 19 p BOOKS & THE CULTURE ►

How to Do Things with Words His problem is lust, she said, and a strange, wild sorrow rolled down the table like fog off the bay. What do we know about anyone's life? Another betrayal, this time in Denmark. Yes, she left him, and they say he still adores her. This is how we talk Cripple Time about other people's suffering, as if it had to make sense, "Time is a bleeding when even your own familiar life is just a series of scenes that is never stanched." whose meaning eludes you, their consequences spreading out —Damascius unforeseeably in all directions, like an his Murdoch plot. Even the events whose meaning you're sure you know I am salvaging the day from the tides of pain, (There was that halting, rueful walk on the beach at Truro, from what we crips, who are always running late, when you knew you had to write or die; that last instant call cripple time, holding it in my arms of the marriage: If you're going to be this disabled, I can't to have it, like the blue hibiscus stay) are moments lifted from unmeaning, like the opening bars blooming in our hot garden. of Schubert's A Major sonata echoing down to the lake under the stars. We took her out in July to show her, You can't say what you can't say, and as the famous logician almost too late. drily remarked, you can't whistle it, either. Still, you go on, Every night I held her hand, she hardly knew. salvaging words from your own private fire, carrying the blurry She had in her mind gone back to the country scraps of your life, struggling to change the end of the story. to be a child in McNair, Mississippi. Every night she told me how she loved that time, as if all her later life had ceased to exist. Louisiana, Largo This is our only incarnation, Idling in heavy traffic, like Wittgenstein's wheel a blossoming and failing inside time, that turns nothing, I barely register the rain. carried along by the body, splayed and hurt, The windshield is smeared with amber and red, looking ever more inward for redemption, all the colors outside going darker. time in which nothing is lost. The blue of the house ahead, the leaves of the tree with their silvered edges Not to know, never to know, are hidden in umber, the colors of a Whistler nocturne. to find a seam in things to rest in, My thoughts are all dry islands. a cold coin in a dark pocket. I've become a medieval logician, construing her reasons; To feel blessed by the world, regardless. there are no more modalities of gone. —KAREN FISER A light goes on in a picture window. A woman has appeared, turning on a small lamp beside a piano. She opens her sheet music and sits down. In the circle of lamplight, her hands seem to stroke the keyboard once, lightly. She moves the bench, adjusts her glasses. Take me in, my heart cries. Play for me.

fter a first career that included teaching philosophy in George- any true poet, any true philosopher, has to give: knowledge." Albert town, Texas, and working as a human rights/disability Gelpi wrote, "Many of (Fiser's poems) explore—compellingly but activist, Karen Fiser turned to writing. She was a Wallace without self-pity—a silenced area of experience: the lonely life of Stegner Fellow at Stanford and published her first book of poems, pain, day to day, with a physical handicap or disability. But the Words Like Fate and Pain (Zoland Books) in 1992. She still misses other, related theme is the compensatory function of language in a living in Texas and the Hill Country. world of loss....This is plain talk of the deepest kind...." Benjamin Alire Saenz of El Paso wrote of her work, "Never self- I have personally been a fan of her gracious, powerful poems for indulgent, (Fiser) writes of her physical pain precisely, elegantly, many years. and with self-effacing humor. In the end, the reader receives what —Naomi Shihab Nye

20 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 BOOKS & THE CULTURE ► Crossing the Gate Two Family Memoirs of the Journey into Madness BY LARS EIGHNER

MY MOTHER'S KEEPER: A Daughter's Membir of Growing Up in the Shadow of Schizophrenia. By Tara Elgin Holley with Joe Holley. Morrow. 288 pages. $23.00.

OEDIPUS ROAD: Searching For A Father ,in A Mother's Fading Memory. By Tom Dodge. TCU Press. 214 pages. $15.95 (paper).

remembered when the state high- way through Austin passed by the state hospital," writes Joe Holley (a former editor of the Observer, and husband of Tara) in his pro- logue to My Mother's Keeper, "the insane asylum we called it. As children...my brothers and I would peer through the tall iron gate as we • Tara Elgin Holley and her mother, Dawn Elgin Joe Holley Idrove by. We were hoping to see a crazy gate learn to overcome the false fears. We either book is about a mentally ill person, a lunatic, gripping the barred win- are disabused of the myths of wild-eyed person. Tara Holley's mother, dows and shrieking to get out." psychos, paranoid murderers, and multiple Dawn Elgin, is diagnosed with Urban sprawl has since swallowed the N personalities split twelve ways. schizophrenia, and Tom Dodge's mother Austin State Hospital. All that remains of Both My Mother's Keeper and Oedipus Juanita has Alzheimer's disease, but the the state highway are a few vestigial busi- Road are about people who have been books are not about the mothers. They are ness-route markers, and the little boys through the gate—at least metaphori- about the children, about the authors. Many viewing the gate from passing cars are cally—as children of mentally ill persons. differences between the books—the differ- likely to be on their way to Central Park, a These both are, by any account, serious and ences between Tara Holley's experiences trendy shopping center on a part of the hos- important books, but I want to emphasize of her mother and Tom Dodge's experience pital grounds ceded to commerce. The iron that My Mother's Keeper could hardly be a of his mother—represent real differences gate stays propped open. better read. If it were a novel, it would be in the diseases. Schizophrenia is, over- In the fall, late at night, fraternity pledges the best Texas novel I had read. Taken as whelmingly, a disease that becomes appar- race their cars through the narrow lanes on bits of Houston and Austin history, it is just ent in late adolescence or early adulthood. the hospital grounds. They fly over the as good. Whether she walks through the Dawn Elgin became ill near the time Tara speed bumps like children dared by a bully West University Village (near Rice) of the Holley was born. Holley has never known a to run up on the porch of a haunted house. '50s with her aunt (one of Houston's mag- time when her mother was well. Not much has changed, because the real nificent and redoubtable aristocrats) or Schizophrenia , eats identity. Holley can gate is not the one of iron, but is of a walks down Austin's Drag in the early hear stories about what Elgin was like as a stronger, more enduring alloy of ignorance '70s, Tara Holley's acute observations are child or a teenager. That is not the same and superstition. often presented in slight, trenchant anec- thing as knowing what kind of adult Elgin A few of us get through that gate: friends dotes that characterize without caricature. might have become. and relatives, volunteers, mental health Neither book contributes to the stack of Some authorities describe schizophrenia workers—and some of us get through it as serious and important books that are too as a process. Often after twenty or thirty patients. Those who have been through the dull for anyone to get through. years, the process has run its course and de-

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 21 parts. The person then is not really well, be- schizophrenia is much more common. mother believed herself to be. Children, even cause the person has no memory of being Apparently, the incident that gives rise grandchildren, are often mistaken for well as an adult. More than having a hole of to Dodge's title occurred when Dodge took spouses or lovers and in ways that are con- so many years in one's life—as for example Juanita to the grocery store after she had in- siderably more inappropriate. While every- might happen to someone who woke from a sisted on leaving a nursing home: one else in the world grows older, an lengthy coma—the person with schizo- At the grocery store, she whispered, Alzheimer's patient may grow younger, and phrenia has also the remnants of a schiz- "See that old man? That's old man Doty. the person mistaken for a spouse may come ophrenic identity. Not only does Holley not I heard him talking to himself after we to be mistaken for a parent. In any event, know her mother as a whatever oedipal overtones well person, but Elgin may exist are all on would not recognize her- Juanita's side, for Dodge's self as a well person. obsession, as it turns out, is In contrast, Alz- in fact with his father. heimer's usually ,becomes Coincidentally, both apparent in late middle or books raise questions of old age, when the task of paternity. becoming an adult, for Tara Holley's interest in better or worse, is largely discovering something complete. Tom Dodge's about her father has much mother was as well as to do with her mother's ill- anyone can claim to be ness. Dawn Elgin, from an when he was a child, al- old Houston family (for though they were not es- whom a Central Texas town pecially close. Dodge em- and a section of a major phasizes her aloofness, Houston street are named), and the distance that char- was a singer with a very acterized the relation- promising career when she ship even after Dodge disappeared from Holly- became an adult—might wood at the age of twenty- be, in part, the reason one. She called her sisters a Dodge did not apparently few times, seeming to be in recognize the first signs of some kind of trouble, say- Juanita's illness. ing she was being watched. As is typical of people When she surfaced, she was with mild illnesses or in in the care of an older man mild stages of more seri- in New York City, she had ous diseases, Juanita de- a daughter—who is Tara— veloped strategies for and in very short order she disguising her illness. was committed to Bellevue. Her memory of the dis- Why? While Alzhei- tant past was intact, so A Dawn Elgin sang with the voice of a jazz angel Courtesy of Tara Elgin Holley mer's is too often dis- she took every opportu- missed as a matter of "just nity to turn conversations to bygone days walked by. He didn't know I could hear getting old," schizophrenia seems a puzzle and evaded direct questions about the pre- him. He said, 'It sure didn't take her that could be solved if only one had the sent. Also typically, her husband Ray- long after Raymond died to get another right pieces. In cultures that take an even mond and her coworkers made allowances man," meaning me, of course. The oedi- dimmer view of madness, a blow to the for her lapses and took up the slack. This is pal implications of this delusion gave me head is often blamed. The disease is hard to especially likely in Alzheimer's, because the horripilating fantods.... accept and hard to understand. In Dawn's senility has long been mistaken for a case, the thought is that if the identity of normal part of the aging process. We are odge got off lightly here. At least Tara' s father were known, there might be prepared for older people to become in- Juanita has put this thought in some- some explanation of where Dawn went, creasingly absent-minded, forgetful, Done else's mouth. To her it was not what happened to her, and why—that elu- stubborn when contradicted, and we have so outrageous. Juanita's mind was stuck in sive, tantalizing why—she became ill. That been taught to consider these symptoms 1982, when she was sixty-four. When the in- the patient is ill and that nothing can be normal. People are much less likely to cident in the grocery store occurred, Dodge done to make the patient really well are make allowances for schizophrenia, yet was only about seven years younger than his things families can accept, in time. But

22 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 many never get over wanting to know why. glish in North Texas, and a writer and com- mentions of the motion picture Black Dawn. For a child, for Tara Holley, the wanting mentator for KERA, the National Public There is almost a pattern to it. One to know why has a point. Schizophrenia, al- Radio affiliate in Dallas.) This difference, schizophrenic thought process is that of in- though not known to be genetic in the usual too, is largely a function of the differences in vesting the most pedestrian coincidences sense, can tend to run in families. The child the diseases. Alzheimer's patients become with great meaning and importance. of a schizophrenic may wonder "Am I going more dependent, not only upon their caretak- Is the string of associations: Tara to to go crazy? What about my children if I ers, but upon familiarity of place and regu- Tara, lion to lion, Dawn to Dawn, just co- have any?" Naturally, any simple alternate larity of routine. Schizophrenic people, incidental? Sometimes the associations are explanation, such as "a blow to the head," though they often do little better in caring for more than coincidental and it is possible to would be welcome. Fortunately, Holley themselves, are more likely to strike out on understand a little. Although in persons avoided the endless cycle of what-ifs. their own and, however marginally, to main- who are even more ill, nothing at all seems Dodge's quest for his paternity is more tain themselves for longer periods. to connect their utterances, which are often problematic. Most readers will sympathize Dodge's descriptions of Juanita's behav- described as "word salad." with a seven-year-old boy who has no one iors and his insights into them give us some For too long Perry Mason's expert wit- to accompany him to a father-son picnic. notion of what it may be like in her mind. Is nesses have defined schizophrenia as "split And it would be abnormal if that boy did she obstreperous? You would be too if peo- personality," a disorder so rare that some au- not get some answer, factual or mythical, thorities doubt it exists. More accurately, before he turned twenty. Dodge did not THAT THE PATIENT IS ILL AND THAT schizophrenia is shattered personality: shat- have a father at home, but while she was in NOTHING CAN BE DONE TO MAKE THE tered ideas, shattered associations, shattered her right mind, Juanita gave him a cover PATIENT REALLY WELL ARE THINGS logic. The synthetic processes of the mind story, and the surname of the man she de- FAMILIES CAN ACCEPT, IN TIME. BUT try to put the pieces back together, but as scribed as his father. And the man, who MANY NEVER GET OVER WANTING TO often as not, fit the pieces by the wrong rules. never had any other children, acknowl- KNOW WHY. When the synthetic processes are too ambi- edged that he was Tom's "father." Some tious, the result is paranoia, which is not the men would have left it at that, and even if ple insisted you had done things you had no belief in conspiracies, although it is often they knew it was as much a myth as Santa recollection of doing, if they urged you to manifest in that form, but is the over-organi- Claus, would have found more pressing prepare for appointments you did not re- zation, the systematizing, of the fragments things to occupy their minds, if not by the member making, if you found things by the wrong rules. A lion on the screen is time they were twenty-five, then by the moved you did not think you had moved pasted to a lion on the porch—not much time they were thirty, and certainly would yourself, or if things appeared in your more than that is required to think that the have put the issue aside by the time they home without you being aware of having lions are a sort of message, an instruction, a were in their fifties. That was not the bought them. If you had been home all day, veiled threat, or something very important. course Tom Dodge took. it would be perfectly reasonable—a per- Holley could have given us more of I invite readers who wish to, to think fectly normal thought process—for you to Elgin, but it would have been, for the most otherwise, for there are many other ways in be suspicious if some ponderous piece of part, more of this: more fragments, some of which Oedipus Road is valuable—but I new merchandise suddenly appeared: Who them slapped together as child slaps jigsaw think it unfair for Dodge to avail himself of put it there? Are they still in the house? If pieces ,together when they don't really fit. his mother's illness to dislodge from her you could, you would call your son and in- As it is, Holley's own story of herself is failing memory a story she chose not to tell sist that he come right away to investigate. fascinating and well told, and offers us as when she had her wits about her. In a way, Strange behavior is often understandable, much insight into the diseases as present though, Dodge's obsession is only a symp- although understanding does not always knowledge will admit. tom of a more widespread and disturbing lengthen patience. Holley has the gift of taking Elgin as she resurgence of tribalism in what ought to be Sometimes a little insight can be had into is, and this is perhaps the most important a democratic and civil society. That kinship the thoughts of a person with schizophrenia, skill in caring for a mentally ill person. Too could be contained in a vial of semen or but usually only in bits and pieces. Holley often, the people nearby do not accept the that allegiance is owed to a particular set of seems to have discovered a few of her patient as she or he is. They see the person genes are not ideas worth propagating, and mother's bits and pieces. Elgin has a recur- that was, or the person they hope for, or I'd be remiss in recommending this book— ring horror involving the MGM lion. Holley what they fear the person may become. which I do—if I did not mention this flaw discovers lion statues at the apartment build- This is the way of false hopes (and false ap- in its substance. ing where Elgin was living with the older prehensions). In Travels With Lizbeth, I The good of Dodge's book, besides his man just before she was committed. Tara told how I made that mistake in my per- fine draughtsmanship in portraying the Cle- Holley was named for the estate in Gone sonal life, despite my years of working burne of his youth and its denizens, is that we With the Wind ...MGM lion... Gone With with mental patients, and it is a mistake see more of Juanita and the progress of her the Wind ...lions at the entrance of the build- that anyone can make. illness in it than we see of Dawn in Holley's ing where Elgin probably was living when The term "mental illness" stands in the book. (The author is also a professor of En- Tara was born...and Dawn Elgin's repeated way of understanding. And since General

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23 Patton tried to slap a shell-shocked solder to time one of them does grip a barred win- back to his senses, the nation's understand- dow and shriek to get out. ing has not progressed by much. "Mental A person with a severed spinal cord is illnesses" are illnesses. Schizophrenia is a not having an alternate lifestyle choice or a ffMfe real illness with every indication of having spiritual experience, and neither is a mental tate*. a physical basis just as real as that of dia- patient. Alzheimer's, of course, has no ulti- betes. Alzheimer's is a real and ultimately mately effective treatment. As palliatives fatal disease that can be demonstrated in an go, there are now several for schizophrenia, autopsy just as clearly as cancer or heart which are very good at least by comparison disease. The thought that mentally ill peo- to what came before. But we fault mental ple are really suffering from some spiritual patients who refuse to take their medica- disorder or flaw of moral character is what tions in a way that we do not fault people might be called the conservative error. who refuse to take their blood-pressure But there is a liberal error, too. Some medication or who mismanage their insulin mentally ill people really are crazy. There or who stray from their diets. Pick up your FREE copy is a physical cause of their craziness, but We still have a long way to go. at over 200 locations they are crazy nonetheless. It is not that in Austin & Houston. they have an odd or unusual view of the Lars Eighner is the author of Travels with For further information call world, that they have chosen an alternate Lizbeth, a memoir of homelessness, the 512.476.057 ► or reality or lifestyle, or that they have found novel Pawn to Queen Four, and other some other plane of consciousness; they books, and is a frequent contributor to the 713.521.5822 are crazy, they are lunatics. And from time Observer.

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24 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 BOOKS & THE CULTUREI,

re to See nem .How They Blue It to Grow Them -The Top Bluebonnet Painter r"-Wn. A Once Great Magazine Goes to Seed BY ROD DAVIS

n January 1973, when Mike Levy caught on four-color, high and Bill Broyles and a few others gloss pulp, this has got to were starting what would be an up- be it. start, national-class magazine based Take the issue to a on the unlikely demographics of a wake and get drunk. It's regional audience, Levy cockily the only decent way to dared potential readers to subscribe show respect for the in a famous ad which began: "Sick pages that over the years of Bluebonnets and Bum Steers?... Send us gave life to Gary Iten dollars and we'll send you a damned good Cartwright, Stephen magazine about Texas. Monthly." Harrigan, Al Reinert, Two months later, in March, undaunted Giles Tippette, Larry by and obviously relishing in Fuming Wright, Suzanne from the Defenders of the Sacred Flora, Winckler, Bill Martin, Levy upped the bravado in his "Letter Jan Reid, Richard • • from the Publisher." Although the staff West, Dominique (AU r P-7)111 giiiN50.14 ro,",11 0 tiatioaal Watfik.,Or had voted to "love our bluebonnets," he Browning, Nicholas 11,*,mrch Cegtor said, the magazine wasn't going to cut Lehman, Joe Nocera, anybody any slack. "As Bill Broyles wrote Dick Reavis, Jan Jar- last month, we started Texas Monthly for boe, Peter Applebome and many, many bonnet fields and get those readers who've finished the daily others, and which Broyles left in 1981, their pictures taken. At one point, drive-bys paper or the six o'clock news and felt that turning the reins over to Greg Curtis, were proposed (no, not seriously) as a pos- there was more than Levy's choice over Paul sible way to unclog the fields and highway what they were told." Burka. I remember shoulders. "What we are sick of is those early days. I was a The March cover is no homicide—more the quickness of some of young reporter for The a public suicide, naked and flabby. the Texas press to rely on Associated Press, al- Read the '73 letter again. There's no bluebonnet pictorials and ready cynical and hard equivocation in Levy's manifesto. There other similarly hardhit- to impress but—despite was no lack of fire in his belly when he ting journalistic efforts," an early tendency to- wrote those words. So a bluebonnet cover, Levy wrote. "Stories on wards gloss I once complete with a full assortment of so- bluebonnets, kittens, and mildly satirized in these called stories ("bland pap and puff," was octogenarians generally pages—TM was doing it?) ab,out the flower and its ilk and its tend- don't offend too many what we all wanted to ing, can only be either: readers, or, more impor- do. I didn't just read (1) a symbolic public renunciation wor- tantly, advertisers. Nice, Cartwright; I studied thy of the Stalin show-trials or a Clinton bland pap and puff, the him. He was Eric Clap- campaign pledge; kind of stuff that was big ton. Now, he's covered (2) a kind of self-parody, if they did that in 1930 and which some in bluebonnets. It's like sort of thing, which Levy says was the of the Texas press and senile journalism being promised no more water, the fire next more or less the case [see transcript, "Look professors still laud as great journalism." time, and getting a wet 40-day forecast. It's at the Body of Work," page 261—which Dude! But, 'zup with the March '97 the sound of a covenant broken. would be more plausible if Levy had a cover? Granted, this whole bluebonnet thing sense of humor about himself; It's not just that it's bluebonnets, or that has always been beyond ordinary under- (3) the result of a terrible mix-up at the former First Lady and Hill Country matron standing. K-104, the urban black station in printer, and the real cover of the March saint Lady Bird Johnson is in them up to her Dallas, ran an extended joke last spring, the TM issue—"LeAnn Rimes: Secret Love knees. It's more like they forgot the black morning laugh team laboring in vain to see Child?"—is now horrifying readers of border. If ever the death of an idea was why white folks had to go stand in blue- Texas Highways;

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 25 GOOD OR BAD NOW, TM IS STILL IN THE MANSION, AND WE'RE STILL IN THE TARPAPER SHACK. BUT WE NEVER PROMISED A BLUEBONNET GARDEN. (4) a twisted cry for help; end of Levy's full control. Hell, maybe it (5) the last proof anyone will ever need was the general run of stale, tweedy stories that the subscription you bought into in (what Levy calls the "body of work") that 1973 is legally null and void and you are you wouldn't read to comfort a comatose relieved of all responsibility of ever friend, though reading them might put you thinking the magazine will ever again have in that condition yourself. A return, all said, anything worthwhile to report, because the to "the kind of stuff that was big in 1930." dead can't tell tales. And what bigger than a stunning so- porific on the big blue? Granted, the editors ot that all have some sense this was- of shame and Nn't pre- refer to the sub- dictable and has- ject as "wildflow- n't been. Really, ers"—but around where were they here, a rose by to go after "Far- any other name is rah at Fifty" on a bluebonnet. the February What does this cover, the second mean? Does it time Her Hair- fill Et mean that we are ness has appeared SITAIUSE now returned to there. The first those thrilling gracing, in the TEXAS' LE days of yester- early '80s, was 11101ANS year? When the TM's first A Night With the story of Texas "celebrity" cover, Ultimate Texas was in the hands story • by Curtis— Bombshell of the big and cor- strangely not rupt and inces- cited in the fol- santly lying low-up by Skip dailies? When the Hollandsworth, only slick maga- habitué of Dallas zines are the gossip columns, resident specialist in change-resistant Texas Highways or gas chrally you saw the day a year "bluebonnets, kittens and octogenarians," bag suck-up social sheets like the new D? e had bluebonnets on the cover and tragic mutation of Will Rogers' obser- When this publication, with a checkered and country sto ry vation. Says Skip, "I never met a celebrity I financially troubled past (and future, but didn't like." more on that elsewhere) but which never Okay, that s true—but not a whole issue Not that it's Skip's fault. He's good at completely repudiated its core principles, is devoted to it. what he does, and celebrity slurping has once again the only reliable place for readers No, it's not a whole issue devoted to it, become a mainstay of almost every maga- to find "more than what they were told" in Rod [referring to current issue]. zine, in one way or another. Every maga- the mainstream media? zine needs a Skip, like every network That last may be wishful thinking. Texas Well, your cover is anyway. needs a Leeza. Texas Monthly's problem Monthly's marketing orientation was a hell Rod, look at the last twelve issues, look isn't that it has Skip, but.that it has too few of a lot more effective than that of the at the body of work, Rod, before you who are not Skip. Too many who either Texas Observer; facts are facts. When it make a fool out of yourself. quit or got fired. was good, TM seized the ground the Ob- Perhaps those exits, most recently Jarboe, server should have. And good or bad now, I'll try not to do that, but I am calling Reid, and editor David McCormick, consti- TM is still in the mansion, and we're still in because 1 thought maybe you had a tuted more pertinent evidence of the long, the tarpaper-shack. But we never promised problem with the bluebonnets. painful demise of the Anti-Bluebonnet a bluebonnet garden. ethos. Or the botched, hubristic attempt at The really scary thing about the current Continued on next page California magazine, setting the stage for TM cover is that readers may like it. Most the acquisition/bail-out by Dow Jones and probably won't remember or know about

26 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 the petaled gauntlet Levy once threw down, and in so doing gave Texas writing a kick in the pants that propelled it for years. We know about history, and the doom of those SON OF DURANGO ignorant of it, but does that still apply in the Information Age of Attention Deficit Dis- BY LAURANCE L. PRIDDY order? I mean, if Deion Sanders can go back to the Cincinnati Reds, and Bill Clin- ton can get re-elected, and Pamela Lee An- derson can boast about how her biggest as- sets are completely fake, what difference does it make if a fundamental promise is A NOVEL OF IMMIGRANT busted flatter than Corsicana road kill? I WORKERS IN TEXAS mean, this is Texas; we're all a bunch of blowhards, ain't we?

figured Ronnie Dugger would turn AVAILABLE FROM SUNSTONE PRESS Shining Path before Mike Levy let a (800) 243-5644 /bluebonnet shame the cover of his mag- OR FROM AMAZON.COM BOOKSTORE azine. I thought Laura Bush would get a hickey before the anti-matter of the fields filled the TM feature well. I thought the • 0011.11■Ii Al) Well, that's—okay, Mike, I just called 4..1 11 %Vb. Sea Reverend Criswell would convert to Scien- to see— Horse tology. I thought Ozzy Osbourne would be- .0 come a Daughter of the Republic. You know, if you want the bottom line, •• Inn But really, it was more like waiting for it's funny. We are mortal souls and we • Phil Gramm to turn Republican. By the laugh at ourselves. You know, we Kitchenettes Cable TV time it happened, nobody was surprised, talked about it ourselves and had a good Heated Pool and nobody cared. laugh about it. y beside the Gull of Mexico Still, I'm gonna take the March issue, Oil Mustang bland So that was basically the attitude 11 and find a little spot out back and dig out a • Available for private parties there— Oak narrow grave and give the Bluebonnet Unique European Charm

) cc Atmosphere Manifesto a decent burial. ❑ Yeah, you know, Levy was 26-years- la

old when he started the magazine— AFFORDABLE RATES ," • Air Rod Davis is a former editor of the Ob- Pets Welcome to server. His essay, "The Fate of the Texas 1423 1101 S i Writer," feet '1* (Observer, July 26, 1996), won Okay, what have you done with your %A" Port Aransas, TX 78373 w the 1996 PEN Texas award, for the best life, okay? Take it easy. (Hangs up). $ essay by a Texas writer. Scull (512) 749-5221 • lin- Reservations ,ief. 0 tplIf 4"

...WIMANA A 01■11,_ „Air The Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas 14gs Ir ••■•■■■■■• II, and The Texas Observer proudly present a reading by award-winning poet ANDERSON & COMPANY COFFEE Rosemary Catacalos TEA SPICES TWO JEFFERSON SOUARE AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 Thursday, March 27 512-453-1533 12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m. Sinclair Suite, 3.128; Texas Union, UT Austin Send me your list. Reception and Booksigning Follow Name For more information, please call (512) 471-2136. Street

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MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 27 BOOKS & THE CULTURE/ The Fall and Rise of Dixie BY RON NIXON DIXIE RISING: In short, the nation has undergone a pro- lessness and poverty, and overall, a place of How the South is Shaping American cess of "Dixification." incredible history and horrors. Values, Politics and Culture. In his book Dixie Rising, New York Dixie Rising is a valuable primer on the By Peter Applebome. Times reporter Peter Applebome graphi- transformation of the South, and is one of the Times Books. cally illustrates the forces that have con- best books on the South in recent years. The 385 pages. $25.00. tributed to the transformation of the South. book is not without its shortcomings, how- Though he is not a native, Applebome now ever. Although it essentially fulfills the nce upon a time—a lit- lives in Atlanta where he is the Time's bu- promise of its title, the book fails to deliver on tle over thirty years ago reau chief, and his knowledge of the South its subtitle. Other than a well-researched and to be exact—the South is apparent throughout the book. In each well-written chapter on country music, Ap- stood out as a distinc- chapter, he takes his readers through several plebome does not provide much substance to tive American region. Southern communities that as a group are his implicit argument that the South is shap- For many Northerners, largely reflective of the new transformation ing the character of the rest of the nation. Mississippi or Alabama of the region. In Cobb County, Georgia, There is little discussion, moreover, of the seemed as far away as Newt Gingrich's home base, Applebome suburbanization of the South—the internal any foreign country. Poverty and racism profiles a community that, like its well- demographic change which has led to the were0 rampant, and the rest of the nation known representative, is staunchly anti- GOP's takeover of the once solidly Demo- tuned in nightly to a barrage of media reports government and big on the entrepreneurial cratic South, as well as the current Republi- of beatings of civil rights workers, lynchings spirit—at least for other folks. For as Ap- can dominance of national politics. Nor, other and other acts of brutality. Southern politi- plebome shows (citing a study by Common than the Cobb county example, is there any cians, like then-Alabama Governor George Cause), few places in the country have ben- detailed discussion of the apparent paradox Wallace and South Carolina's Strom Thur- efited as much as Cobb County from the that the South—despite the oft-declared mond, were threatening to lead the South largesse of the federal government. Southern aversion to big government and fed- away from the rest of the nation, for a second In Selma, Alabama, Applebome visits eral intervention—is more economically de- secession. The South, as a historian would with many of the very activists and politi- pendent upon the federal government than later write, "was an American problem." cians who made the city famous during the any other region. Unlike Emory University What a difference a generation makes. civil rights struggles in the '60s. Apple- Professor Dan Carter's book The Politics of Today the South leads the nation in eco- bome chronicles a whole new set of prob- Rage: George Wallace, Dixie Rising does not nomic growth. The population has swelled, lems facing the black community of Selma, trace the genesis of the GOP Contract with as millions of Americans have moved still living with the images of "Bloody Sun- America to the former Alabama governor and Southward, and Southern culture and poli- day." "Virtually all of the dozens of young what he represented, politically, in the overall tics have become mainstream. Country blacks killed in Selma in recent years," Ap- Southern political ethos. The southern work- music is the biggest selling genre, and plebome notes, "have been killed by other force, too, is generally and strangely absent Southern politicians, once considered a blacks, not white racists." from Applebome's version of the South. fringe element, now dominate national poli- Applebome visits dozens of other com- Yet despite these undeniable shortcom- tics. Two Southerners occupy the White munities, interviewing George Wallace, ings—the potential subjects, in all fairness, House. The Senate majority leader is Mis- white supremacists in Georgia and neo- of several additional books—the stories sissippi's Trent Lott. Newt Gingrich, the confederates in South Carolina, black cat- that Applebome pulls from these myriad controversial and self-destructive adoptive fish workers in Mississippi and North Car- Southern communities, situations, and peo- Georgian, is the Speaker of the HOuse and olina—where a race riot that took place in ple rival those of Atlanta Constitution edi- architect of the GOP takeover of the Wilmington in the late 1880s still lingers in tor Neely Fuller's book, I Hear Them Call- Congress. Until recently, both political par- the psyche of the community. Eventually, a ing My Name, and its powerful narrative of ties were headed by Southerners: Haley Bar- view of the South emerges that suggests, as the new South. - , ❑ bour of Mississippi heads the Republican Faulkner once wrote, that in the South, Party, and Don Fowler of South Carolina "The past isn't dead, it isn't even past." In Ron Nixon is associate editor of Southern was national chair of the Democratic Party. these portraits of communities and individ- Exposure, and edited the special fall 1996 Arguments over states' rights, big govern- ual Southerners, Applebome has evoked issue, "Way Up North in Dixie: How ment and educational choice, once confined what makes the South what it is today: a re- the South is Winning the Civil War." to the rantings of Southern segregationists, gion of contrasts and conflicts, of black po- (Southern Exposure, P.O. Box 531, are now being debated nationally. litical power juxtaposed with black power- Durham, NC 27702.)

28 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997 AFTERWORDI What Lives ini the Country BY BRAD TYER "Country" is a fine word and its always been one of my favorites, mostly because like all the best words it can mean so damn many things. Apply it to music and it can suggest a hundred different sounds, from the Carter Family to Patsy Cline to Willie Nelson to Whiskey Town to—its not pretty, but it if only semantically, true—Brooks and Dunn.

ut apply the word to geo- graphic land—the usage most of us probably be- came familiar with earli- est—and it spans still fur- ther spectrums. Country is the opposite of city, rural vs. urban, and in that sense it helps 'reinforce its namesake, coun- Btry music, as an animal distinct from more citified forms like rock and jazz and rap (though blues greedily envelopes urban and country components). The Country is where you go when you leave town for the weekend, maybe to the grandparents' house, maybe to camp or fish or hunt or hike—but when we say we're going to the country, precisely what kind of country are we talking about? There's Appalachian-style country, spawner of bluegrass and mountain music. There's the Texas Hill Country, home to Kerrville's country-cousin folk festival. You've got Montana's Big Sky country, A Music at a Terlingua wake Dimitri Gerasimou home to whatever militiamen and ranchers country that, via a mere seventeen-mile Grande—itself a creamed coffee mud listen to, and the generic green-grass-and- drive, you can leave the country altogether. hue—which spends much of its course shade-tree country of farming communities There's no grass here, and little you'd flowing at a distinctly un-grand one-to-two hosting barn dances all across this call soil—just drought-dusted rock and foot depth, water is defined by its absence. great...umm...country. sand and clay and limestone. And aside What we call a creek is a dusty low trough Whatever "country" is, most of us, by de- from the elevated alpine island of the devoid of anything but alluvially washed mographic definition, don't live there. For Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National rocks that might flash-flood for an hour or most of my life, most spent in Houston, I Park, and a few willows and cottonwoods so if unseen rains are heavy to the north. As didn't either, but by dint of recent circum- clinging to the banks of the Rio Grande, for local fauna, the interpretive guides at stance, I do. The country I live in isn't what there are no trees, just prickly pear (four Big Bend can spend all day telling you you think of when you think of country— varieties: white-spined, brown-spined, pur- about the wild and often microscopic diver- it's neither Appalachian nor hill nor big sky ple, and blind, on my rented property), sity, but you'll get a better summation of nor green-grass-and-shade-tree country. ocotillo, lecheguilla, agave, creosote native living things from longtime locals: The country I live in is more what you think bushes, cholla cactus, century plants, and "If it doesn't sting, stick, bite, or break your of when you think of desert. The Chihuahua mesquite—which is technically a tree, but heart, it just doesn't live out here." Desert to be specific, where its northern not much of one, though it's handy if And this country, like all kinds of coun- branch reaches up out of Mexico into deep- you've got a cord chopped by the time the try, has ties to a music that raises the specter est west Texas near the Rio Grande conver- bitter desert winter blows in. of the landscape. It's a country landscape gence of the U.S. and Mexico. In fact it's Shades of brown, not green, are the dom- within the porous borders of Texas (a whole one of the particular joys of this particular inant colors, because aside from the Rio 'nother country), so it's not surprising that

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 29

• Austin music writer John T. Davis between Texas and Mexico Butch Hancock the country artists that best personify the nerves). I've seen Steve Fromholz in the I saw him perform at Terlingua's ,landscape are Texas artists, and it's even local bar, and Steve Earle is a local favorite Starlight Theater a few weeks back, stand- less surprising that these same "county" with the live bands that play—I shit you ing in the corner with the tiny P.A., just him artists consider the boundaries of country not—around campfires almost any night of and a guitar, strumming free for the locals music to be as porous as those of the state it- the week. Hell, even Jerry Jeff Walker, as who come here because this, and only this, self. Drive (or hell, ride a horse) up the road lame as he can be, named his only decent is where the drinks are, and for the few a bit to Lajitas and wade, ankle deep, across tourists who still show up to take a guided the river and see if you don't know whereof THE COUNTRY ARTISTS THAT BEST raft/float through one of the Rio Grande's Jimmie Dale Gilmore speaks on Braver PERSONIFY THE LANDSCAPE ARE TEXAS incomparable canyons. I haven't had a Newer World when he sings about finding ARTISTS, AND IT'S EVEN LESS SURPRIS- chance to ask Hancock, but the porch-talk himself over the line. Go a little further ING THAT THESE SAME "COUNTRY" has it that he's here to work on a book in the back with Gilmore, to Spinning Around the ARTISTS CONSIDER THE BOUNDARIES peace and quiet of this particular country Sun, and check out those sleeve photos of OF COUNTRY MUSIC TO BE AS POROUS (coincidentally, that's also one of the rea- sons I came here, and I earnestly wish Mr. Mr. High and Lonesome barefoot, walking AS THOSE OF THE STATE ITSELF. up into the mouth of Santa Elena canyon, Hancock better luck than I've enjoyed). thousands of feet of water-cut stone loom- album Viva Terlingua! after the nearby But Hancock is a name brand anomaly in ing identical on either side of him, one side adobe-strewn ruins that remind us what the our midst, because here in the country, we Mexico, the other Texas, the river trickling country can do when it decides to re-stake don't get much music from the outside. by underfoot, unaware. its claim on a millionaire miner's idea of a The only radio anyone can pick up is the Gilmore, to my mind, is the defining company town. static-y strain of an FM powerhouse in Oji- country music presence of this country bor- And according to a recent newsflash naga, almost seventy miles up the river and derland, but he's not the only one. Joe Ely (word does travel uncannily fast in the across the official border checkpoint from has a metaphorical home here with his country), Butch Hancock, songwriter ex- Presidio. Shortwave radios provide a little, Spanish-ish balladeering (I can hardly walk traordinaire, prolific recorder of tapes, peri- if the weather's right, and if the program out on my front porch without hearing the patetic photographer, and designer of the isn't crowded out of its bandwidth by that strains of "Galleo Del Cielo" whispered in world's only known (if un-completed) format's everpresent evangelicals. Some a coming wind that announces itself as adobe airplane, has recently moved into a nights, for no apparent reason, a car radio sound before its force actually reaches little house near the old ghosttown. will pick up signals cloud-bounced down

30 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 28, 1997

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AUSTIN'S MOST COMPLETE INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER IS MOVING TO NEW OFFICES MARCH 1. WE'VE TAKEN 7,000 SQUARE FEET TO HOUSE 356 NEW DIGITAL HIGH-SPEED PHONE LINES. • A hermit with his ax Dimitri Gerasimou from Oklahoma or Nebraska. the character of the country that engulfs it tv(zzLe If you want to see and hear a touring and gives it room to spread out: political band—the meat and potatoes of the music boundaries, personal defiance of same, I t at ,0,(2 industry, country or otherwise—you've got two-way stylistic migrations, community, STARTING MARCH 15: to go to town, which means to a tiny beer- and land that, even arid, holds roots tight. MORE SPEED and-bands dive, Railroad Blues, in Alpine. Maybe it's no coincidence that the two Since that's 160 miles round trip, most of concepts, the musical and the geographic, MORE POWER our music is locally generated. And if not share a word. Maybe country music, most MORE FLEXIBILITY all, or even very much of it, is what you're broadly defined, is music that springs from in the habit of calling country music, you a country landscape, music with a regional LOW FLAT-RATE PRICING can't help but hear how deeply it's rooted in base and a regional basis. Maybe country its place. That girl behind the keyboards is a music, to the extent that it's distinct from teacher at the local one-size-fits-all school other categories, is music that's planted, The Eden Matrix that opened just last year. That guy stran- and grows, in a particular patch of earth. www.eden.com gling the Telecaster is the local hermit, and my nearest neighbor. That drummer plays Postscript: Circumstances beyond this in every band in town (so to speak), not be- writer's extremely limited and dwindling cause he's the only drummer around, but control have, since the penning of this because he's the only one who can hit a essay, led to my surely temporary abandon- OUR NEW PHYSICAL ADDRESS: convincingly Latin beat. The mariachis ment of Terlingua's dry climes for the fa- LITTLEFIELD BUILDING from across the border sit in during the sec- miliarly swampy homestead of Houston, ond set, and the vocals are as likely to carry whose populace, while on occasion muster- 106 E. SIXTH STREET, SUITE 210 a Mexican trill as any down-home twang. ing some reasonable approximations of AUSTIN, TX 78701 It's the kind of border-straddling country country music, wouldn't know country life VOICE: 512.478.9900 music appreciated and embraced by if it slithered up and bit it on its collectively FAX: 512.478.9934 Gilmore and Ely and Hancock and pasty ass. Fromholz, et al., not to mention the anony- mous locals (well, not anonymous...if Brad Tyer is a freelance writer who can't WORLDW SE you're out that way, ask after Laird Consi- decide where the hell to live, except that it dine, Clem, Dave Lanman, and whatever of has to be in Texas. A shorter version of this their buddies might be hanging around). essay originally appeared in No Depres- Not because it fits any of the obyious or ac- sion, a bi-monthly magazine covering al- DES GN: cepted definitions, but because it reflects ternative-country music.

MARCH 28, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 31 V

THE BACK PAGE The Thousand Dollar Man The Feds don't print thousand-dollar bills any more but any re-issue might as well bear the likeness of House Appropriations Committee Chair Democrat Rob Junell. Junell still gets the small-denomination political gifts from the folks back home in San Angelo. But one advantage of running a money com- mittee like Appropriations is that political contributions are easier to count—because they're bigger ppropriations, • a committee where Toomey even tried to get an extra bounce overflowing hearing room looked like a every trade association wants to out of a cheesy $300 (Toomey himself gave mini-convention of lobbyists, most of them protect its interests, is a magnet $1,000), writing to Junell, "I am pleased to wearing stickers reading "Finish Tort Re- for political action committee advise you that based on our recommenda- form." What they wanted was to make it next money. Of the $122,462 Junell raised be- tion Merck PAC USA has agreed to con- to impossible for an injured worker to receive tween July and December of 1996, $49,750 tribute $300. One of us will either deliver a fair damage award in a personal injury suit, was contributed by PACs and to insulate corporations which gave $1,000 or even more thoroughly from safety responsibility. Junell more. The biggest check 11' was $10,000 from HUB- 101F V3114,.111110111. was happy to oblige. PAC, put together to rep- Junell is also co-author resent Lubbock's busi- of a bill that will further ness interests by John limit non-Texans access to

ttils ears ie utcAs-n-wrren the Texas courts, even if Montford before he left ,Or ALL %.11616, rsAtfc A1iN PeShotlf the corporation to be sued the Senate to become 414t6taarr... Chancellor at Texas Tech. maintains its headquarters And of the $63,875 Junell in Texas and is clearly cul- raised between January -- pable of negligence in a and July of 1996 counting only $1000+ the check to you or mail it." Labor and trial personal injury. The bill, as it passed the contributions—$17,000 was contributed by lawyers may try to buy their way in, but Senate on March 18, would even allow PACS or trade associations. there aren't enough of them to get an equity judges to dismiss lawsuits already filed. What is available to the public in Texas position in a guy like Junell. No surprise there. The statewide Texans Ethics Commission filings is names and PACs mean business, and so does Rob for Lawsuit Reform contributed $5,000 to numbers, but occasionally, a personal note Junell. These days, what businesses want is Junell last year. And tort reforming lobbyist suggests that you get a better hearing when an end to all lawsuits filed against them. Mike Toomey (a former House Member you pay for it. "With the December dead- Ever since the National Federation of Inde- who left office to work for Bill Clements) line fast approaching, I felt like getting 'the pendent Businesses began a coordinated and Richard Weekly (the Houston devel- check in the mail,' was important, and then national effort to dismantle the civil justice oper who has made tort reform a personal getting on your calendar for a meeting at a system ten years ago, there have been tort crusade) each contributed $1,000. There later date," wrote Lillie Gilligan of Glaxo reform bills filed each session. The process are others—as Senator Gonzalo Barrientos Wellcome, a large pharmaceutical com- has been gradual, but access to the courts warned in an angry speech, these guys just pany with its own national PAC. has been steadily more limited. keep coming back. Pfizer lobbyist Kenneth Ardoin added a If you believe tort reform is finished, As does the money: $242,796 raised and personal apology to his letter covering a you're probably one of those folks who $165,449 spent during the last election $1,000 check: "Sorry I didn't get to your held out hope that Ralph Nader would edge cycle. With that kind of backing, if Rob event. My heart was there and now here is out Clinton and Dole in last year's election. Junell had had even one opponent file in the my Money! Hope to see you soon!" And When Junell brought his third-party liability 1996 primary or general election, he would Austin lobbyists Doc Arnold and Mike bill to the Civil Practices Committee, the have killed him. 11]

MARCH 28, 1997 32 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER