OCTOBER 20, 2006 1 $2.25 OPENING THE EYES OF FOR FIFTY ONE YEARS

rison companies scavenge Raymondville BY FORREST WILDER

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1111111 I I 10191 74470 89397 4 \ OCTOBER 20, 2006 own TheTexas Observer ALL ABOUT ANN Molly, I have so loved your writing Didn't know her. Never was in her FEATURES over the years, and this tribute to Our presence. Voted for her before mov- Lady Ann did her so much justice ing to the East Coast in 1991. (Just ["A-men. A-women. A-Ann," October JAILBAIT 8 returned to Texas this spring.) Prison companies profit as 8]. Her voice flowed through yours. For six years I lived in northern Thank you. Raymondville's public debt grows New Jersey. Every time I saw Ann by Forrest Wilder Duana Welch Richards on TV making a visit to New Via e-mail York, my embarrassment at being a Texan lifted briefly. She made me feel DEPARTMENTS I didn't really begin to appreciate Texas proud again. She put a GOOD FACE till I moved to Washington State, right on Texas, something it hasn't had in DIALOGUE 2 as Ann became governor more than six years. Well, more like I never realized what an incredible EDITORIAL 3 12 years, but you get my drift. Political Science woman she was and what loss I feel I am so sad she is gone. What a great now that she is gone. She embodies all human being.

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE 4 that is dear to me about the place. Plus Gayle Childers Denton Molly could not be a better writer for Via e-mail CAPITOL OFFENSE 6 the topic. I love 'em both and thanks Better Debate Than Never for covering someone who is certainly What a wonderful article and great a hero for Texas, a big figure like photos. A nostalgic (and informative) ANDREW WHEAT 12 LBJ, one that stood out in the Texas trip down memory lane of the 30 A Family Affair political scene that actually tried to years I lived in Austin. make a difference. MOLLY IVINS 14 Thank you, Molly Ivins! Ring the Bell for a Texas Democrat Brian Cobb Linda Davidge Olympia, WA San Jose, CA

JIM HIGHTOWER 15 Cleaning Up Congressional Corruption DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS Sadly, we have two corrections to report from our October 6 issue: OPEN FORUM 16 The Wizard of Os In "Houston, We Have Hope for Denis," we misspelled the last name of by Ronnie Dugger the Democratic candidate for House District 133. Our apologies to Kristi Thibaut. BOOKS & CULTURE In "A-Men. A-Women. A-Ann.," we were off by two years in dating the Newt Gingrich and Co. takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives. It was 1994, POETRY 21 by David Garza not 1992. In our defense, it seems like they've been in power forever. We regret the errors.

CORMAC MCCARTHY 22 IMAGINES THE END by Steven G. Kellman Statement Of Ownership, Management And Circulation The Texas Observer (541-300), 307 W 7th St., Austin, TX 78701, is published biweekly, except OUT OF AFRICA 24 during January and August when there is a 4 week break between issues (24 issues annually) by David Theis for a subscription price of $32.00. Publisher, The Texas Democracy Foundation; Executive Editor, Jake Bernstein, Editor Barbara Belejack;. Owner: The Texas Democracy Foundation, 307 SWEET, CIVILIZED, AND SAPPED 28 W. 7th St., Austin, TX 78701. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: Average Data and for Issue by James E. McWilliams Date 9/23/05. (a) Total Number of Copies: avg. 8345, actual 8700. (b) Paid and/or Requested Circulation: (b l) Paid or Requested Mail Subscriptions Outside-County: avg. 6617, actual 7637; (b2) Paid or Requested Mail'Subscriptions In-County: avg. 866, actual 0; (b3) Other Non-USPS AFTERWORD 31 Paid Distribution: avg. 90, actual 90; (b4) Other Classes Mailed Through USPS: avg. 0, actual iLas Manitas Pam Siempre! 0. (c) Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation: avg. 7573, actual 7727. (d) Free Distribution by by Mail: (dl) Outside-County: avg. 144, actual 344; (d2) In-County: avg. 73, actual 0; (d3) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS: avg. 90, actual 200. (e) Free Distribution Outside the Mail: Cover illustration by Matt Bors avg. 28, actual 0. (f) Total Free Distribution: avg. 329, actual 544. (g) Total Distribution: avg. 7903, actual 8700. (h) Copies Not Distributed: avg. 442, actual 429. (i) Total: avg. 8345, actual 8271. (j) Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: avg. 96%, actual 93%. Signed Lara George, Circulation Manager, 10/17/05.

2 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 EDITORIAL Political Science

exas Democrats are having And yet somehow Democrats can't attack a legless Vietnam veteran— trouble convincing them- quite believe. It's not that Democrats Georgia's Max Cleland—as soft on ter- selves that victory is within don't see what a decade of Republican rorism? As revolutionaries they disdain reach this election cycle— rule has wrought—and fear for the the rules and would rather attack straw even though the evidence is future because of it. Hell, most of the men than participate in real debates. everywhere. One of the few country feels that way. Public opinion From a distance, they seemed a likeable Tfacts that seem to unite a majority of of the White House and the Republican bunch. Only now, among the American the voting population is that they don't Congress is in the toilet. In Texas, electorate, familiarity has bred contempt. like Governor . In the state Democrats understand better than It's clear the Uniter-Not-the-Divider House, only four Democratic pickups Republicans that the budget choices wears no clothes. Even the court herald (not an impossibility) could signal the of today will determine the social and Bob Woodward has declared it thus. end of Speaker Tom Craddick's reign. economic realities of tomorrow. Three Maybe Democrats refuse to believe Nationally, the Democrats need 15 seats decades from now the state can be a because their candidates project the to retake the U.S. House. There could booming economic powerhouse or an earnestness of do-gooders rather than be as many as 40 contested House anarchic third-world economy depend- the magnetic certainty of the radical. races at the end of the day. A few are ing on how seriously Texas takes its Take for example gubernatorial candi- turning into easy wins: Republican health care and education responsi- date . The man doesn't have money has refused to compete with bilities at this moment. Add Perry's much Elvis, just a stubborn confidence Nick Lampson for Tom DeLay's Sugar contributor-driven agenda of the Trans- and the promise of common sense over Land seat; the GOP candidate is a Texas Corridor and school vouchers ideology. The other side has perfect hair write-in. The felonious sleaze from the and the stakes this Election Day are and a sheen of folksy charm. Even Bell's Jack Abramoff scandal has already sent clear. In Washington, Democratic con- independent challengers have funny Republican Congressman Bob Ney into trol of the House means, above all, one-liners and fiery stump speeches. "I retirement and soon to jail. The Mark oversight. A functioning intelligence liked Bell;' one political science gradu- Foley-Congressional Page scandal is system in perilous times, constitutional ate in San Marcos told the Texas State threatening to engulf a number of GOP rights like habeas corpus, and societal University Star after the Texas guber- members including, ironically, the compacts like social security all hang natorial debate, "but I don't think he chairman of the National Republican in the balance. has what it takes to be elected as far as Congressional Campaign, Rep. Tom Still Democrats hesitate. Republicans charisma goes." Reynolds. The Senate is also in reach. have spent the past decade beating The simple truth is that if Democrats The Republican National Committee Democrats like redheaded stepchil- just went to the polls this November has all but abandoned Pennsylvania, dren. The minority party has the aspect 7 and voted for their candidates, Rick Montana, and Rhode Island. They've set of the whipped dog about them. The Perry and his ilk would be history. It's up a "firewall" strategy to try and hold Republicans are masterful campaigners; apathy and cynicism, not Republicans, onto Ohio, Tennessee, and Missouri. brazen and ruthless. Who else would that are the true enemies of change. ■

THE TEXAS OBSERVER I VOLUME 98, NO. 20 I A Journal of Free Voices Since 1954

Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger James McWilliams, Char Miller, USPS 541300), entire contents copy- rates on request. Microfilm available Executive Editor Jake Bernstein Debbie Nathan, Karen Olsson, righted ©2006, is published biweekly from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Editor Barbara Belejack John Ross, Andrew Wheat =r except during January and August Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. when there is a 4 week break between Associate Editor Dave Mann Staff Photographers Indexes The Texas Observer is indexed Publisher Charlotte McCann issues (24 issues per year) by the Alan Pogue, Jana Birchum, Texas Democracy Foundation, a 501(c)3 in Access: The Supplementary Index Associate Publisher Julia Austin Steve Satterwhite to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for Circulation Manager Lara George non-profit foundation, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone the years 1954 through 1981, The Texas Art Director/Webmaster Matt Omohundro Contributing Artists Observer Index. Investigative Reporter Eileen Welsome Sam Hurt, Kevin Kreneck, (512) 477-0746, Toll-Free (800) 939-6620 Poetry Editor Naomi Shihab Nye Michael Krone, Gary Oliver, E-mail observer®texasobserver.org Copy Editors Rusty Todd, Laurie Baker Doug Potter World Wide Web DownHome page POSTMASTER Send address changes Staff Writer Forrest Wilder www.texasobserver.org. Periodicals to: The Texas Observer, 307 West 7th Editorial Advisory Board ()cam, Bernard Rapoport, Geoffrey Postage paid at Austin, TX and at addi- Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Editorial Interns Jennifer Lee, David Anderson, Chandler Davidson, Rips, Sharron Rush, Kelly White, Ronnie tional mailing offices. Kelly Sharp Dave Denison, Sissy Farenthold, Dugger (Emeritus) Books & the Culture is Lawrence Goodwyn, Jim Hightower, Subscriptions One year $32, two years funded in part by the City Contributing Writers Kaye Northcott, Susan Reid Nate Blakeslee, Gabriela Bocagrande, In Memoriam $59, three years $84. Full-time stu- of Austin through the Robert Bryce, Michael Erard, Texas Democracy Foundation Board Bob Eckhardt, 1913-2001, dents $18 per year; add $13 per year Cultural Arts Division and James K. Galbraith, Dagoberto Gilb, Lou Dubose, Molly Ivins, Susan Hays, Cliff Olofson, 1931-1995 for foreign subs. Back issues $3 pre- by a grant from the Texas Steven G. Kellman, Lucius Lomax, D'Ann Johnson, Jim Marston, Gilberto The Texas Observer (ISSN 0040-4519/ paid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk Commission on the Arts. OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3

POLITIC INTELLIGENCE Betting on Rick and Dick

TOM, DICK, AND DENNY It's Unfortunately for her, it's still slim pick- have been an agent of indicted federal

hard to be a Republican congressional ings compared to the almost $2 million gambling lobbyist Jack Abramoff).

candidate these days—so many deci- Lampson has on hand. The governor later foreswore gam- sions, so many choices. It's even harder A week after the Cheney event, bling after his slot-machine proposal

for Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who is run- Sekula-Gibbs was scheduled for more imploded in the Legislature in 2004,

ning against Democrat Nick Lampson in fundraising, this time with Speaker of partly because of opposition from

the Texas 22nd. Sekula-Gibbs is not on the U.S. House Dennis Hastert. With Christian conservatives. One Christian

the ballot in the general election and Hastert struggling to keep his job in the gambling opponent in Austin attributed

must convince voters to pick her twice. wake of the Foley scandal, Sekula-Gibbs the about-face to the governor's need

First they must check her name to fill made the calculation and canceled the to placate conservative Christians if he

the term from which Tom DeLay slunk speaker's visit. In this case, the money ever is to be a national GOP political

away. Then, for the general election, wasn't worth it. figure. "We keep telling him he'll make a using new electronic voting machines, great vice president," this source joked. they must manually write in her name. GUBERNATORIAL GAMBLE Bet- One of the largest checks Perry Explaining all this takes money. And ting almost all of their money on just reported in his latest campaign report with as many as 40 seats in play this two of the five ponies in the guberna- came from Gordon Graves, who has November, money for a long shot is not torial race, gambling interests already given $78,000 to Perry and $45,000 easy to find. have contributed more than $1 million to Strayhorn. Graves once headed the Enter the vice president. Dick apiece to Comptroller Carole Keeton precursor of GTECH Holdings Corp.- Cheney's approval rating is so low that Strayhorn and Gov. Rick Perry. Many top the Texas Lottery's apparent contrac- if it were a congressional page, Mark gambling-related donors even hedged tor-for-life. He retired in 2003 as CEO Foley would be hitting on it. But as a their bets—contributing to both candi- of Austin-based slot-machine maker plutocrat himself, Cheney knows how dates over the course of their current Multimedia Games Inc. Late last year, to talk to fat cats. By early October he four-year terms. Graves quietly introduced a hybrid type had raised nearly $40 million for GOP These $1 million campaign wagers of "eight-liner" slot machine in Texas. candidates this election cycle. While pose greater potential liabilities for He is gambling that the machines will Cheney's reputation is toxic for the Perry, however, sin::: he is counting not be deemed the illegal gambling majority of Americans, he is probably on the Christian-conservative vote in devices that they appear to be. still acceptable to the GOP hardcore November—and perhaps beyond. This The governor also got big payouts in Fort Bend County. So Sekula-Gibbs race's leading casino cheerleader, inde- from major gambling interests that went for the money and invited the pendent , has hammered retain his lobby pal Toomey. The PAC of vice president to Houston for a fund- away at this point on the campaign trail. Maxxam Inc., which owns Sam Houston raiser recently. "There's only a small group of people Race Park, gave $60,000 to Perry, At a $500-dollar-a-head event attend- that's against it [casino gambling]," the who also took $50,000 from Big City ed by DeLay, among others, Cheney Jewish cowboy said in August. "And Capital. Big City is trying to leverage bobbed and weaved around the truth. those are Rick Perry's base, the far reli- public funds for a new racetrack in He trumpeted GOP tax cuts but never gious right." Friedman and Democrat the Metroplex area. Fronted by Billy mentioned the astronomical spending Chris Bell reported negligible gambling Bob Barnett, the founder of Billy Bob's that his administration has promoted. contributions—though Friedman did win honky tonk, Big City has recruited "We believe our job is to solve big prob- $45,612 from a Louisiana slot machine Dallas real estate mogul Vance Miller lems, not pass them along to the next last year. ($70,000 to Perry) to help finance the generation," said Cheney, even though Perry made legalizing slot machines scheme. Big City fielded Texas' No. 1 that is exactly what the Bush adminis- a centerpiece of the school-funding gambling lobby last year, spending up tration has done. proposal he unveiled after a policy to $1.4 million on 10 lobbyists. Cheney also singled out the Patriot junket to the Bahamas in early 2004. Act, illegal wiretapping, and torture as That Caribbean cabinet included Perry's SUPREMELY PREDICTABLE evidence that George W. Bush is serious then-Chief of Staff Mike Toomey (now The Texas Supreme Court is comprised about fighting and winning the war on a lobbyist for horse track and casino of nine industry-friendly Republicans, terror. By the end of the night, Sekula- interests) and professional GOP antitax five of whom launched their careers Gibbs had raked in as much as $200,000. zealot Grover Norquist (now known to as corporate defense attorneys. So

4 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 we weren't exactly shocked when the previous year, when the court tossed National Committee. In his usual blunt consumer advocates at Texas Watch out consumer plaintiffs at a 71 percent style, Dean hammered home the fail- recently calculated that the state's clip. That's a long way from the bleed- ures of the Bush administration: high civil court ruled against consum- ing-heart days of 2000 (52 percent "Afghanistan is getting worse. Iraq has ers in 84 percent of its cases last term. anti-consumer rulings). turned into a civil war. Osama bin Laden In fact, given the court's makeup, we Alex Winslow, Texas Watch's execu- is still at large, and Iran is about to get have to wonder how did John and Jane tive director, conceded that statistical nuclear weapons." The Bushies are also Q. Public manage to win 16 percent of analysis is an imperfect way to measure incompetent, he added, when it comes the time? appellate cases involving complex legal to balancing the budget. "They borrow To compile its 10th annual "Supreme issues. "I'm not going to suggest that and spend, borrow and spend. The truth Court Consumer Scorecard," Texas consumers should win every case," he is, most people in this country don't Watch examined all of the court's 110 rul- said. "But when you see defendants want to vote for Republicans. Now it's a ings from 2005 to 2006 and classified winning 85 to 90 percent, that should question of talking to them and explain- 69 as consumer cases. The Supremes raise red flags." It should certainly ing why they should be voting for us." sided with the little guy 11 times. Put raise red flags for any of the corpora- Dean's frequent visits to Texas are another way, that's 11 instances in which tions that somehow managed to beat part of his strategy to rebuild the defendants like insurance companies or the odds and lose before the Texas Democratic Party in all 50 states. Dean homebuilders had to pony up damages. Supreme Court—might be time for a pointed out that he had four organizers The Texas Watch report hints that new legal team. working in Texas and had sent similar the court suffers from massive group- numbers of organizers to other Red think—all nine justices agreed with each TAKING THE MEDICINE During states, as well. "We are going to take other 90 percent of the time. A few a recent stop at Austin's famed Scholz back Texas before we take back some justices occasionally wander off the res- Garten, delivered some of the other states we lost over the ervation. Yes, that means you, Harriet good news and bad news to a slate last 15 or 20 years, but it's going to be O'Neill. Texas Watch rated O'Neill the of Democratic candidates running for hard work and you can't do it without most consumer-friendly justice; she office in November: "Not everybody candidates," he said. "The bad news is sided with consumers in 39 percent of who came up on stage tonight is going you can't just talk to people in Austin. her rulings. Scott Brister, Chief Justice to win. But the first thing you do, the You've got to go outside Austin and talk Wallace Jefferson, and newcomer day after the election if you don't win, is to folks who didn't vote the way we did Phillip Johnson tied for second at 24 start again, or go to work on someone the last time around." percent. The worst of the worst were else's campaign." Dean said he thought that Chris Bell, Nathan Hecht (12 percent) and Don Dressed in wrinkled khakis, wrinkled the Democratic contender for governor, Willett (11 percent). Historically speak- shirt, and signature rolled-up sleeves, still had a chance of winning. "If we can ing the 2005-2006 term, according Dean looked more like a shoe salesman get Bell to 36 percent, he wins." When to Texas Watch, showed an increase than a one-time presidential contender asked how he planned to do that, he in anti-consumer sentiment from the and current chair of the Democratic responded, "It's a classified secret." ■ Sulu Nagai International Headquarters Come Visit us for LUNCH! In addition to our organic coffee, pizzas, empanadas, pastries and pies, we now prepare made to order sandwiches, salads, and even black bean gazpacho.

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OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5 CAP ITOL OFFENSE Better De bate than Never BY DAVE MANN

C here's the governor?" The lone debate of our bizarre four- person race for the Texas governor- ship had been over for barely 20 minutes on October 6, and already incumbent Rick Perry had apparently fled the scene. Perry, like his three opponents, was scheduled to meet with the press following the hour-long debate. He was the only no- show. That left the assembled report- ers—sequestered in the high-ceilinged, glass-encased lobby of a gated-studio building in Dallas—with one question

on their, minds. They kept shouting it Perry spokesman Robert Black (left) and Sen. Tommy Williams all photos by Jake Bernstein at. Perry campaign spokesman Robert Black, who manned a position behind returned to the microphone. Chris Bell and independents Carole the podium in place of his boss. "'Where's Gov. Perry?" Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman. "'Where's Gov. Perry?" "He's on his way back home;' Black Perry's base will likely deliver him no Black tried to ignore it. "Gov. Perry said. less than 35 percent on November 7. won the debate decisively tonight," he "Is the governor afraid to talk to the That gives the incumbent about a 10- began. press?" point lead with a month to go, accord- "Where's Gov. Perry? 'Where's Gov. At this, Black stopped grinning and ing to most polls. To win, Perry simply Perry?" narrowed his eyes at the questioner. "No, needs to run out the clock. The reporters hurled the questions at the governor's not afraid to talk to the The entire night's events seemed him like rocks. Black, perhaps sensing press." He said the governor meets with designed to shield the governor from the makings of a mob, finally responded. reporters all the time—in Austin and as much public exposure as possible. "The governor's not coming:" he said. on campaign swings all over the state. That was the political strategy behind "The governor said what he had to say This was news to most Capitol reporters. ducking the statewide media—sidestep during the debate?' That non-answer "He'll be in a debate. He will be debating a chance to put his boot in his mouth. answer only stoked reporters' ire. Black for the next 30 days with the people Similar political thinking guided Perry's plowed ahead: "I'd like to introduce state of Texas." With that, Black walked out rejection of at least five other invita- Sen. Tommy Williams, who will speak while aides distributed a press release tions to debate his opponents. The one on the governor's behalf." Williams, a from the Perry camp. It was a two-para- debate he did agree to was scheduled rotund Republican from The Woodlands, graph statement, not from Perry, but on a Friday night during high school stepped to the podium. He looked like rather from Black, providing further football season and the night before the he'd rather be having gum surgery. description of Perry's "decisive victory?' University of Texas-Oklahoma show- "Where's Gov. Perry?" Reporters shook their heads. A consul- down across town in the Cotton Bowl. Williams began his statement: Perry tant with the Kinky Friedman campaign The four candidates debated in a closed- won the debate and is the only candi- standing nearby observed, "I guess that's off studio without an audience.. In fact, date with a vision and a plan for Texas. why 65 percent don't like him." the only members of the public or press Most reporters didn't even bother to There's a fine art to winning re-elec- who actually saw the governor in the write it down. tion when at least 60 percent of the flesh were the four reporters asking "Where's Gov. Perry?" electorate plans to vote against you. It and moderating the questions. To make Williams finished quickly, and Black, helps enormously, of course, to have the matters worse, the company that hosted a tight little grin fixed on his face, anti-Perry vote spread among Democrat the debate, Belo Corp.—the Dallas-based

6 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 owner of the Dallas Morning News and hammered her for accepting campaign numerous television stations—decided contributions from tax firms that do to treat the broadcast rights like Coke business with the comptroller's office. handles its secret recipe. Strayhorn denied the charges, but Bell As debate sponsor, Belo could set the wouldn't let her off the hook in his broadcast rules, and company execu- rebuttal. "The facts are the facts," he said. tives refused to allow any but their "It's part of the pay-to-play culture that own stations to show the debate live currently exists in Austin!' in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Strayhorn had the good fortune of Antonio. They did permit PBS and winning the right to ask Perry a ques- Spanish-language stations in those tion. There's no shortage of fodder, and markets to air the debate, but only on political geeks had speculated for weeks tape delay, and only for four days after- how vicious Strayhorn might be. But ward. "We're not going to go through when the moment arrived, Strayhorn all this time and expense to hand over ventured way out into right field, asking our work and investment to competi- why Perry hadn't passed a "Jessica's Law" tors in the marketplace," WFAA station to increase punishment for pedophiles. manager Mike Devlin told the Austin It was an odd choice. Jessica's Law hasn't

American - Statesman. So much for the been a major issue in the Legislature, nor idea that the right to access the public on the campaign trail, and Strayhorn airwaves brings with it responsibilities herself has rarely mentioned it. The to the public. question seemed a transparent and Despite the odds, the debate drew clumsy stab at taking advantage of the surprisingly good ratings. It was the recent scandal surrounding former most-watched show in its time slot Congressman Mark Foley's advances on Friday night in every major mar- toward underage congressional pages. ket except Dallas-Fort Worth, where Perry, looking relieved, easily brushed it finished third. Those who did tune aside the query: "I'll tell you what, one in saw a motley crew of candidates: thing people don't get confused about the governor, hair resplendent as ever, is that Texas is a tough on crime state:' laboring to defend a lackluster record He noted that first-time sex offenders in office; Friedman, dressed in his black receive an average of 20 years in prison, [(preaching coat" and cowboy hat, wav- and then floated the idea that repeat ing an unlit cigar but landing few of offenders should get the death penalty. his famous one-liners in this unfamil- Strayhorn had a tough night all iar format; Strayhorn, the fast-talking around. She talked at a sprinter's pace, Democrat-cum-Republican-cum-inde- racing through stump speech lines pendent state comptroller, standing out such as, "In a Strayhorn administration, in an electric pink jacket; and Bell, the we're going to shake Austin up and tell earnest Democrat, who looked like an people the truth. We'll put the people eager-to-please tax lawyer. first, not the special interests:' Despite Yet it was Bell who fired off the the breakneck speed of her patter, she night's first zinger. Following bland was cut off midsentence at least four opening answers from his three oppo- times when her responses ran too long. nents to a bizarre immigration ques- Several times, she mentioned something tion (it's a federal, not a state mat- called the Texas First Plan and some- ter), Bell offered, "I'm glad to have the thing else called her Texas Next Step opportunity tonight to stand here as Program, but she never quite had time the Democratic nominee with my three to describe what they are. And, of course, Republican opponents!' He then called Strayhorn provided the night's head- Contrasting styles: Democrat Chris Bell for more sensible immigration policies, line moment when, during the highly (top), and independents Kinky Friedman asking, "Does anyone seriously believe entertaining lighting round of political and talk with that we can deport 12 million people?" Jeopardy in which candidates had 15 reporters after the gubernatorial debate. A few minutes later, the candidates got seconds to answer rapid-fire questions, to ask each other one question. Bell was she couldn't name the president-elect of assigned Strayhorn, and the Democrat —continued on page 27

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7 tration by Matt Bo 8 I III FEATIV 4Witifa

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oddamn!" How else could Simon Salinas, the state came up with a different approach: Jails were not, as CC Willacy County judge for 12 years, react to previously thought, dangerous and unwanted eyesores that no the promise that his county's meager and sane community would want. Instead, they were engines of battered budget could more than triple to economic growth and a source of steady jobs for which com- $15 million within a couple of years? His munities should have to compete. "Their PR was amazing," employees don't have health insurance, gov- says Guerra, who was by then the district attorney. "You had ernmentG buildings are falling apart, unemployment is over everyone fighting for the prison." Willacy County wanted the 10 percent, the county has run through four auditors in as jail so desperately it offered the state free land, utilities, roads, many years, and there's not even enough money to hire a dog- and a new water tower. In 1996, a 1,000-bed facility opened, catcher for this sparse agricultural area in South Texas tucked and Florida-based Wackenhut Corp. assumed management. between the giant Anglo ranches to the north and the boom- (This past September, a jury awarded a $47.5 million judg- ing border region. "I've turned over rocks to get industry ment against Wackenhut to the family of a man beaten to here," Salinas says. "Once they see the place, they say, we'll go death by other prisoners at the jail.) to the [Rio Grande]." With industry taking a pass on Willacy "Once you have one jail, it's like a magnet," Guerra says. In County, one of the poorest in the nation, local officials have the '90s, Willacy County, like other impoverished backwa- turned to more outlandish, or bold, if you prefer, economic ters willing to take an economic gamble, became the target gambits. One long-standing idea is to build a spaceport to for prison companies seeking homes for their penal busi- launch commercial rockets from an offshore barge. Another nesses. One polished salesman for this new industry in South ill-advised venture involves using eminent domain to seize Texas is James Parkey, the president of Argyle, Texas-based 1,500 acres on Padre Island owned by the Nature Conservancy Corplan Corrections Inc. "[Parkey] was the point man on with the goal of ferrying tourists to the island on a rickety, 40- each and every project [that came to Willacy]," Guerra says. year-old amphibious vehicle. Both proposals have stalled, but (Parkey did not return two calls to his office seeking com- in the past decade Willacy County has found itself courted ment for this story.) by one industry that has practically knocked down doors to Parkey first appeared in 1999, remembers Guerra, pitching come into the area. the idea for a privately run, 500-bed federal detention center. "We're at the point where we'll grab anything," says Salinas, "Parkey came in here and said, let's sell bonds, put this prison an amiable former farmworker with a full head of white here, and the feds will send you lots of prisoners, and you'll hair. "If it's Prisonville, fine." Prisonville is what the residents of Raymondville, seat of Willacy County, have taken to calling their community. Their town is home to a privately run, 1,000-bed state prison; a county-run, 96-bed jail with space for federal inmates; a private, 500-bed federal jail; and a recently opened private, 2,000-bed detention center for undocumented immigrants that is a crown jewel in the Bush administration's border-enforcement policy. The four facilities are clustered on reclaimed grazing land, a bustling village of razor wire and guard towers across the highway from downtown Raymondville. The 3,600 prisoners—one- third of Raymondville's population—who reside in this penal colony represent the heart of the area's economy. Aside from employing hundreds of locals to guard the prisoners, the jails are supposed to stimulate economic development and provide revenue for the county. But Prisonville seems to have benefited a small group of private, for-profit prison business- men far more than the town on whose humble aspirations they preyed.

uan "Johnny" Guerra, a slim Raymondville native who doubles as the county attorney and district attorney, can remember the first time someone j wanted to build a prison in his town. The year was 1984, and state officials thought Raymondville ought to have a jail for low-level felons. "It's just amazing what happened. You had the whole community against it. All the politicians were against it. I think the banker and I were for it,"

he recalls. But in the '90s, amidst a boom in prison-building, Willacy County Attorney Juan Guerra photo by Forrest Wilder

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 9 make lots of money." He presented the jail venture as a single, Review Board, a tiny state agency that collects data on local "take-it-or-leave-it" package that included the companies government debt. Dallas-based Municipal Capital Markets that , would finance, design, build, and operate the facility. Group Inc. structured and underwrote the bonds. Municipal, "They make it seem like you have to accept the whole thing," a niche investment-banking firm, has been involved in 11 of Guerra says. The county has never taken bids or appointed 23 revenue-financed jail projects in Texas in the last 10 years, an independent supervisor to monitor expenses on any of its according to the Bond Review Board. In Willacy County alone, prison projects. Municipal has financed a mountain of debt, over $92 million Rather than finance the construction themselves, the in project revenue bonds, on three jails. While doing so, the prison consortium used the county's power as a government company has earned $5.4 million. body to issue debt. More critical, however, were the type of bonds floated: project revenue bonds, which can be issued n 2003, when the federal slammer finally opened for busi- by counties with almost no state oversight. It's up to local ness, County Judge Salinas was ecstatic. "We scratched government officials to judge the wisdom of the undertaking. the walls jumping up and down, jubilation all over the But those officials do not issue the bonds directly. Instead, a place," he said at the time. The jail was bringing 200 jobs (( public facility corporation" (a five-member board appointed I to the area. But perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of the proj- by the commissioner's court) signs off on what can be an ect were the cadre of private prison-related companies that almost-limitless amount of debt. Revenue bonds for jail gained a foothold in Willacy County: Houston-based contrac- projects tend to be highly risky because they are paid back tor Hale-Mills Construction Ltd.; Municipal Capital; opera- from the profit generated from housing prisoners. Without tor Management & Training Corp. of Utah; and of course a continuously large number of inmates, the county cannot Corplan. For its part, the county receives $2 a day per pris- make the payments. oner, about $300,000 to $400,000 in a good year. In the case of Willacy's first federal project, the public facil- The county's modest income would come at a steep price ity corporation in 2002 issued $24 million in high-interest for some of its elected officials. In January 2005, two Willacy "project revenue" bonds, to be paid back with the revenue the County commissioners, Israel Tamez and Jose Jimenez, plead- U.S. Marshals Service would dispense for housing its detainees. ed guilty to accepting cash bribes in exchange for their votes By the time the bonds mature in 2024, the county will have to award the contract for the Marshals Service jail. A few returned about as much in interest—$25 million—to inves- months later, a former Webb County commissioner, David tors as the principal amount, according to the Texas Bond Cortez, was convicted of funneling the bribes to "several"

FOR ONE POLITICIAN, PRISON'S A GOOD THING

In the past three years, state Senator friend of Reyes, not as a consultant or he could not make a definitive legal Eddie Lucio Jr., a Brownsville senator. Lucio did acknowledge that ruling because "Your letter does not Democrat, has reported income of Reyes plans to hire him in the future. elaborate on the nature of your clients' at least $115,000 from three compa- "I never asked him to vote for businesses or your 'dealings and com- nies involved in private prison deals nobody," Lucio says. "I accompanied munications' on their behalf..." For in South Texas: Argyle-based Corplan [Reyes], and I concurred with what specific legal concerns, Abbott sug- Corrections Inc., Utah's Management Mr. Reyes was saying because I know gested Lucio consult private counsel. and. Training Corp., and Aguirre Inc. the people he's talking about who Tom Smith, director of the Texas of Dallas. could possibly do a good project in office of the government watchdog Lucio has also lobbied unsuccess- that county." group Public Citizen, affirms that fully for a proposed federal detention Lucio says he realizes the difficulty state law allows legislators to lobby center in Wilson County, southeast in balancing his role as an elected county officials on behalf of private of San Antonio, according to Wilson official with that of a businessman, clients. Nonetheless, Lucio's actions, County Commissioner Albert Gamez but carefully abides by state rules and while legal, are ethically questionable, Jr. Gamez says Lucio joined Richard regulations. " [E]verything we have Smith says. "[Lucio] has extraordi- Reyes, a private prison salesman from done, we have done based on the nary power over the affairs of the Boerne, in an August meeting with parameters given to me by attorneys county. His actions in Austin can him. "Reyes and Lucio are talking to general and chairmen of the Ethics not only affect their revenues, but me, trying to convince me so that they Commission." their rights to take certain types of can get another vote and push [the Lucio last wrote to Attorney General action, so county officials are going detention center] through," he recalls. in 2003 seeking an opin- to bend over backwards to please the Lucio says he attended the meeting but ion on his private business dealings. senator or to take action to benefit his

that he was only present as a longtime Abbott responded to the senator that clients ."—F.W

10 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006

WILLACY COUNTY PRISON PROJECTS

Facility Name Companies Involved Year Opened Number of Beds

Willacy County State Jail CCA 1996 1,000

Willacy County Regional Detention Facility MTC; Corplan; Aguirre; Municipal Capital; Hale-Mills 2003

Willacy County Jail Corplan; Municipal Capital; Hale-Mills 2004 96

Willacy County Processing Center MTC; Corplan; Municipal Capital; Hale-Mills 2006

county commissioners. Although no corporation has been jail after a sheriff's investigation discovered female guards had identified by investigators as the source of the bribes, Guerra promised special favors to prisoners and a male guard had sex has his theories. At his office, he digs up minutes from a 1999 with a female inmate.) Rather than default, the county paid county meeting when Willacy commissioners were consid- the money out of its own budget. In November it will owe a ering the facility; the minutes list Cortez being present as a second payment of about $700,000, according to the county Corplan representative. Corplan was awarded the contract. In auditor. Salinas says the county will probably privatize the May 2005, Willacy County, on Guerra's instructions, filed a county jail rather than default on the loans. Management .& civil suit against Corplan and Hale-Mills alleging that the two Training Corp. has generously undertaken a free "feasibility companies were parties to the bribery and that the contract study" to evaluate that option. Michael Harling, vice president for the jail was therefore void. (The suit was later dropped, but of Municipal Capital, defends the prison projects his company Guerra said it would likely be refiled once the criminal pro- has financed and insists that, on balance, the county has made ceedings conclude and more documentation is available. The money off of them. sentencing for Tamez and Cortez, pushed back several times, is now set for November. Jimenez died in April.) n November 2005, Department of Homeland Security The same month the county filed suit, the members of the chief Michael Chertoff promised to end the federal pol- public facility corporation—despite the bribery scandal— icy of "catch-and-release," whereby the United States hired Corplan to develop a 500-bed addition to the Marshals I apprehended illegal immigrants from countries other Service jail. Guerra was dumfounded. The public facility cor- than Mexico and released them for lack of detention space. poration had just selected the very company the county was Instead, detainees would be held in detention centers funded suing. At a minimum, Guerra wanted commissioners to order by millions in new congressional appropriations until they the public facility corporation to stop doing business with could be flown back to their home countries. But where could Corplan. On May 23, the commissioners' court, on a 4-1 vote, space be found for all these people? Prisonville seemed a natu- instructed the facility corporation to terminate its relation- ral fit. "James Parkey shows up in town again, and this time ship with Corplan. It would seem that Willacy County was it was supposed to be a secret, hush-hush project and that it washing its hands of James Parkey. was coming all the way from the president," Guerra says. "If The federal jail wasn't the only instance of Parkey's promise it leaked, all bets were off." of tidy profits ensnaring the county. In 2002, faced with pres- To meet an October 2006 deadline set by Chertoff, the sure from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards to allevi- companies intent on building the 2,000-bed, $60.7 million ate overcrowding in the county jail, Parkey was ready with a "temporary" facility would have to scramble. That meant solution that involved the same prison consortium. "With the pushing the deal through without raising the hackles of any county jail, it was the same idea," says Guerra. The commis- local naysayers. Only after the detention center was well under sioners would use the public facility corporation to issue $7.5 way did citizens and most county officials begin to unravel the million in 20-year project revenue bonds, which theoretically mystery of how the project became a reality. Billie Pickard, a would be paid off by renting 50 extra beds to federal agencies. local gadfly, has been conducting her own personal investi- Once again, Municipal Capital handled the financing, pocket- gation. One document in her fat file, "leaked" to her by an ing $453,900 in the transaction; Hale-Mills built the facility; anonymous source, is a letter from Commissioner Noe Loya Corplan stewarded the deal. Unlike the state and federal jails, to Timothy L. Perry, acting chief of the detention acquisition the county's sheriff department would run the facility. The and support branch of Homeland Security's Immigration new jail opened in October 2004, but when the first payment and Customs Enforcement division. In the June 1 letter, to the investors came due on May 1 of this year, the entity the Loya, the most fervent prison booster on the commissioners' commissioner's court set up to oversee the bonds couldn't court, mentions a May 31 meeting in Willacy County with come up with the $140,000 owed. (In April the Marshals a Homeland Security official and "available team members" Service had removed all their female prisoners from the new —continued on page 19

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11 • COMMENTARY I BY ANDREW WHEAT A Family Affair

It ain't me, It ain't me, campaign!" Sen. Lucio wrote to the from the Rio Grande Valley. Second, few I ain't no senator's son. Observer in an enthusiastic response of the leading dual donors to the Lucio —Creedence Clearwater Revival peppered with exclamation marks. He family are particularly Democratic. added that his son's opponents "couldn't In fact, the corporate lobby supplied en years after state Sen. Eddie raise very much money in Austin, so almost all of this money. Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville) they blamed me for their inability to The younger Lucio acknowledged graduated from county gov- do so!" that he received major support from ernment to the Legislature, Similarly downplaying his father's lobby interests outside the Valley. "As a his 27-year-old son is poised role in his campaign, the younger Lucio first-time candidate I have no history to join the House. Barring said, "All I ask is to be given a chance." personally," he said. If someone wanted the unforeseen, Eddie Lucio III—who Winning the Democratic primary is to make a legal contribution to his IIIgraduated from UT Law School just last tantamount to winning office in heav- campaign, he said, he could not afford year—will be elected to the House in ily Hispanic and Democratic House to refuse. "No one has ever asked me to November. Thereafter, these two Eddie District 38. Yet even post-primary politi- take a stand on issues," he added. Lucios will monopolize the political cal waters paranormally parted ahead of By far the largest joint contributors representation of the more than 130,000 the young Lucio. Republican nominee to the two Lucios are Texas' largest PAC, residents of Cameron County in both Luis Cavazos quietly dropped out of the Texans for Lawsuit Reform, and the chambers of the Legislature. The last race in June, citing "unexpected changes state's No. 1 individual donor, home- simultaneous instance of such father- in business commitments." Then the builder Bob Perry. While TLR and Perry son political control that the Texas last man standing between Lucio and occasionally give to Democrats, these Legislative Reference Library could find the House, Libertarian Jim Fuller, died huge donors overwhelmingly fund dates to the Great Depression. of congestive heart failure in August. Texas' GOP machine. "Many Democrats A phenomenon occurring with the (The Libertarians then nominated Linda in the Valley have noticed that the sena- frequency of Halley's Comet deserves McNally as Fuller's replacement.) tor always sides with the Republican its own neologism. We'll call this one Sen. Lucio, who chairs the International agenda," Solis said. "My response has a Luciopoly. If Halley's Comet orbits Relations and Trade Committee, pos- always been, 'Follow the money:" the sun, the son in a Luciopoly gravi- sesses the power to pave a yellow-brick Asked what interest such donors had tates toward his father's fundraising road for his namesake if he chooses. in his campaign, the younger Lucio pull. Money helped deliver the younger Re-elected without opposition to a four- speculated that they were impressed by Eddie Lucio's victory in the crowd- year term in 2004, he has no distracting his accessibility. "Rep. Solis never had ed March Democratic primary race campaign of his own this year. Yet Sen. an open-door policy with these groups," to replace retiring Rep. Jim Solis of Lucio has raised more than $100,000 in he said. Once in the House, the young Harlingen. The more than $200,000 campaign funds this cycle. As one gauge Lucio said he will vote the interests of that the younger Lucio mobilized for of the elder Lucio's influence on his his "indigent district." the primary was four times that of his son's campaign, the Observer analyzed Even donors who just gave to the closest competitor. Despite this finan- how much money the Lucios received younger Lucio are a mixed bag. They cial supremacy, Lucio narrowly averted from donors who contributed to both el include such stalwarts of the ailing a primary runoff with Solis-backed padre and el hijo this cycle. The younger Democratic Party as the Texas Trial candidate David Gonzales, winning 51 Lucio, who amassed the larger war chest, Lawyers Association and Texas State percent of the vote. got 38 percent of his total from donors Teachers Association. But they also "Sen. Lucio was twisting, bending, and who also gave to his dad. Meanwhile, include the HillCo lobby firm's politi- breaking arms to get people to support 64 percent of Sen. Lucio's money came cal action committee (which got most his son," Solis said. "I had lobbyists tell from donors who gave to his kid. of its money from Bob Perry) and even me they wanted to help [Gonzales], but Few people would be surprised that Tom DeLay's lobbyist brother, Randy— the senator was pressuring them." two Democratic candidates trolling the a longtime lobbyist for the Brownsville Gonzales said that "Obviously name same waters around Cameron County Navigation District. recognition helped a lot. But I think tapped many of the same donors. Yet In trying to build a new bridge into money was the single biggest factor." this common-sense explanation fails Mexico, this navigation district has "I have never put any pressure on on two counts. First, only a minuscule awarded millions of dollars in con- anyone to contribute to me or my son's share of Lucio crossover money came tracts to Dannenbaum Engineering

12 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006

•

LUCIO FAMILY TOP CONTRIBUTORS In the 2006 cycle, Eddie Lucio Jr., raised $104,023 while his son, Eddie Lucio III, raised $263,875 in funds from campaign contributors. The grand total for both came out to $367,898. In cases of companies contributing to both father and son, Eddie Jr. had 64% of the share, where Eddie III had 36%. The table below lists the top contributors, the amount of money they gave, and to which Lucio the money went to.

Amount Contributor Business-type City Father Son $52,500 Texans for Lawsuit Reform Tort-law lobby Houston 20! X $35,000 Bob & Doylene Perry Perry Homes Houston X $24,500 HillCo PAC Lobby Firm Austin $15,000 Border Health PAC Physician's Lobby McAllen $8,525 AT&T (form. SBC) Telecomm Austin X $7,000 0 PAC 0 Funding, LP (investing) Fort Worth $6,500 P. Rowan Smith Jr. TX Regional Properties Houston X $5,000 TX Trial Lawyers Assoc. Plaintiff lawyer trade group Austin X $4,750 TX Medical Assoc. Physicians trade group Austin X

$3,500 TX Real Estate Assoc. Realtor Trade Group . Austin X $3,000 TX State Teachers Assoc. Teacher's union Austin X $3,000 Time Warner Cable Cable television Houston X $2,800 Alejandro Hinojosa, Sr. Hino Gas Harlingen X $2,600 Sen. Lucio Campaign Dad's campaign fund Brownsville $2,520 Ramiro Gonzalez, Jr. Billboard advertising San Benito X $2,500 Bank of America Bank Austin $2,500 TXU Employees PAC Electricity Fort Worth $2,500 Wholesale Beer Distributors Beer trade group Austin $2,000 Randy L. Delay Tom DeLay's lobbyist brother Houston X $2,000 Joseph F Phillips Convenience stores Mission X $2,000 David 0. Rogers, Jr. First National Bank Edinburg X

Corp., which has been a major client & Thornhill hired the younger Lucio politician from his father. "I would, of Sen. Lucio's public relations firm. In to open a Brownsville office for its absolutely, encourage him to avoid 2004 the Brownsville Herald exposed land-use and municipal government any conflicts of interest in his private the conflicts that arose when Sen. Lucio affairs practice. When the larger Clark (business) work!" Sen. Lucio wrote. "He represented such private clients before Thomas & Winters of Austin acquired would have to evaluate his business local governments that depend on the the firm this year, it trumpeted the affairs very closely!" senator's public office to help secure Brownsville practice of this recent law- Yet the younger Lucio said he does not state funds. Sen. Lucio responded by school graduate as a major prize of foresee any conflicts between his private pledging to discontinue this consult- its acquisition. If the younger Lucio practice and his House duties. Though ing—at least temporarily. An official enters the House in January, his law ethical issues can arise when lawmak- in nearby Willacy County complained practice looks like it could pose the ers represent private clients before state in July that Sen. Lucio lobbied him on kinds of local government conflicts entities, the younger Lucio said, "There behalf of some of his old clients who that have ensnared Sen. Lucio. While are no ethical issues in going before a are pursuing private prison contracts the younger Lucio said that most of local government." there. [See "For One Politician, Prison's his work involves routine real estate Is this young politician in need of a Good Thing" page 10] transactions, he said he also sometimes paternal advice? Or has he been getting While the younger Lucio is may need to represent clients before it all along? ■ following his father into politics, is local zoning commissions. he also emulating the senator's Given the potential conflicts that such Award-winning Observer columnist private business practices? A year ago work could pose for a lawmaker, the Andrew Wheat is research director of Austin-based law firm Minter Joseph Observer solicited advice for this young Texans for Public Justice.

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 13 COMMENTARY I BY MOLLY IVINS Ring the Bell for a Texas Democrat

hris Bell for governor! I know, I know, it's stop the presses, Ivins favors Democrat! But We may never the Kinky Friedman candidacy is worn thin andC no fun. Besides, we actually have again get a chance a good chance to get Rick Perry out of office. After six years in office, the Coiffure is at 35 percent approval. If he to do our state such gets another four years, I don't think we'll have a public school system left— he really does intend to destroy it, at far- a great service. right GOP donor Jim Leininger's bid- ding, you know. We may never again get a chance to do our state such a great service. This could be the Alamo of elections. Strayhorn, normally a bulldog of ing something black is just not funny. For those like me, who believe in a campaigner, does not seem to have Unless it's funny, you get no points for music and laughter in politics, Kinky attracted many Republicans to her ban- being anti-p.c. Friedman appeared to be a natural— ner: She's no . Right now, Bell's biggest problem is and besides, how hard can it be? Since Republicans themselves are fed perception. "Doesn't have any money." It turns out, a little harder than Kinky to teeth with Perry, aside from the right- "Can't raise money." "Democrats can't is willing to go. In an excruciating inter- wing Christian base, this looked to be win:' Once you've lost to a clod like view with the Dallas Morning News, a chance when they could reclaim their Perry, your confidence kind of slips, and Friedman not only got about half his party, or at least redefine it some. Nope, you think it can't be done. Those who facts wrong (this is why we accuse Bush no interest. keep repeating these complaints about of misleading people), but also dem- Bell is looking like a better bet because: Chris Bell forget this is an entirely dif- onstrated that he does not understand (A) He has the Democratic base vote ferent race. Perry is running on a 35 school finance or taxes, nor does he going for him, and (B) Perry is just so percent approval rating and is planning have any intention of trying to do so. lame. As we start down the stretch, Bell 17 more coal-fired power plants. Not to I know this is coming third, but I also is picking up on the outside, Perry is still mention seven special sessions and the think Chris Bell is a good man—intel- at 35 percent after a year, Strayhorn is Trans-Texas Corridor. ligent, knowledgeable, and funny. You'd fading, and Kinky stopped to poop on There was a bit of flap recently when like him, honest, although he would be a the track. Liz Smith claimed the late step down for us in the hair department. I'm all in favor of anti-political cor- would have been in favor of Kinky for One of the great mysteries of this race rectness—a great source of humor, it governor. Maybe Liz knew Ann better is why Carole Keeton Strayhorn has is. After using the N-word, Friedman than I did. But I'd bet not. Listening to imploded almost as fast as Friedman. claimed great comedians like him used her memorial service, I was reminded The only reason Friedman is still in the such language. To belabor the obvi- how hard we fought and how tough it race is free media: Reporters were all so ous, Richard Pryor and Chris Rock are was. I thought of the slippage since she bored by the thought of another snooz- black—Kinky is not. left office—blacks and browns left out er Republican victory that they fought Take a line like, "As Jesus once said to again. All we have to do to win this is get to keep Friedman's candidacy alive long the Mexicans, don't do a thing 'til I get Democrats to vote. Let's make it a vote past the point when it was clear that the back." A Chicano comedian with great for Annie. ■ Kinkster was in it entirely for ego and timing could do it. It doesn't work from publicity. I still like the idea—maybe Kinky Friedman. That's why all his fun- Molly Ivins is a nationally syndicated next time, we should get a funny, smart niest stuff is about the weird, existential columnist. Her most recent book with Lou musician who cares enough to study up dilemma of being a Texas Jew. Dropping Dubose is Bushwhacked: Life in George a little. Marcia Ball, anyone? Joe Ely? the N word into any sentence involv- W. Bush's America (Random House).

14 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 COMMENTARY I BY JIM HIGHTOWER Cleaning Up Congressional Corruption

s it just me, or is the rancid HABEAS CORPUS This phrase BLOCHNEAD It's not easy being a stench of Washington politi- embodies the democratic principle— whistleblower—especially when the cal corruption a lot more enshrined in our Constitution—that head honcho of the federal agency malodorous than usual? You government officials cannot arbitrarily charged with protecting whistleblow- might remember a decade ago arrest you, lock you, up, and throw ers is a blockhead. His name is—aptly when Newt Gingrich put forth away the key.. Habeas corpus—which enough—Scott Bloch. He's another of hisI "Contract with America," pledg- literally means "produce the body"—is George W.'s political appointees with ing that if Republicans took power, an essential safeguard against a police no particular competence for the job. they'd tidy up the place, turning it into state, for it allows anyone to go to a His previous post was at the Justice an ethical nunnery. Well, since then, court of law to challenge their impris- Department's "task force for faith-based the GOP has taken total power—the onment. The founders insisted that initiatives." Bloch has been a bumbler— Congress, presidency, and the -courts— there be legal checks on- our officials he's under investigation for sexual bias but Washington these days is stinkier (even the president) to prevent them in the workplace and retaliation against than a barroom spittoon. Take a whiff from the exercise of naked govern- employees who disagree with his policies. of such characters as Tom DeLay, Jack mental power. Habeas corpus is the He even has a whistleblower complaint Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, Bob legal procedure requiring government against him by his own staff! In his first Ney ... and so many more mug shots officials to present evidence that there month on the job, he tossed more than a in the making. Indeed, there is now is a reason to imprison someone. They thousand legitimate whistleblower cases, so much corruption between lobbyists can't just.do it on executive whim. Until apparently so he could claim progress and lawmakers that the FBI has had to now, that is. George W. asserts that, as in reducing a backlog. But Bloch's most triple the number of squads investigat- a "war president," he is not bound by blockheaded move was his treatment of ing them. For decades, only one squad such constitutional niceties as habeas Leroy Smith, who had been named 2006 was needed to handle such cases, but corpus.' Not only is he claiming that "Public Servant of the Year." Smith was this year there are three squads with he can grab anyone off our streets being honored for blowing the whistle 37 full-time agents digging into the and even have them 'tortured—he has on federal prison factories that expose muck—and the FBI official overseeing been doing it. The shameful case of inmates and staff to deadly toxins. In the mess says he wants to add a fourth Maher Arar is one glaring example. He September, he was flown to D.0 for the corruption squad because so much was seized by federal agents in New big ceremony when Bloch abruptly can- wrongdoing is being uncovered. York in 2002 and—denied the right celed the event. He claimed that he had Early this year, when some Hof the to habeas corpus—was zipped away to cancel because another agency offi- scandals were revealed, the GOP to Syria, where he was tortured for a cial had suffered a "sudden" death in her loudly promised to stop the selling year before it finally dawned on his family. But the death was not sudden. of legislative favors. In September, brutal inquisitors that he was inno- "It's kind of fishy," said a disappointed however, when media coverage of the cent. Far from acknowledging their Smith. What really caused this petulant corruption had died down, the House horrific error, much less apologizing reaction by the guy who's supposed to cynically passed' a sham of a reform, to Afar, the Bushites have tried to prevent retaliation against whistleblow- patted itself on the back, and promptly brush' off their responsibility. "We were ers? It seems he learned that Smith was returned to taking lobbyist-financed not responsible for [Arar's] removal to going to a press conference after the junkets, using lobbyists to chair their Syria," lied Bush's boneheaded attorney ceremony to decry the difficulties of fundraising committees, and putting general, Alberto Gonzales. When the being a federal whistleblower—and that their spouses on lobbyists' payrolls. media caught him in this lie, -Gonzales' would not be good for Bloch's image. He Their "reform" was about as effective spokesman blamed his comment on a later mailed the award to Smith. To help as tying an air freshener to the tail of bureaucratic misunderstanding, saying, whistleblowers fight such blockheads, a hog. "He had his timeline mixed up." contact the watchdog group, PEER, at The only reform that'll actually Damn right, he did. The Bushites 202-265-7337. ■ do the job is legislation to remove think this is 1706, not 2006, and that the corporate money from politics George is the royal highness—not Former Observer editor Jim Hightower by providing public financing of all merely a president who is required to is a speaker and author. To subscribe to congressional elections. To learn more, honor the people's Constitutional pro- his newsletter, the Hightower Lowdown, call Public Campaign: 202-293 -0222. tections; including habeas corpus. call toll free 1-866-271-4900.

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15 OPEN FORUM I BY RONNIE DUGGER The Wizard of Os

wo hundred forty-seven followed with another one.) some of his promises under oath. In down, seven to go. That was Weeklies and small-city dailies, though, every courthouse he has visited recently, the achievement of David have welcomed his uncompromising, he files an "Affidavit for Public Record" Van Os, the Democratic anti-big-corporate message, as scores pledging his personal honor to certain nominee for attorney gen- of news reports attest. Win or lose, he commitments. "I am placing written IT eral of Texas, as of Friday, is what the late Senator Yarborough oaths in the public records:' he says, October 6. He was speaking to voters most missed in Texas politics in his later because "I mean what I say. Under oath I who had assembled to meet and hear years, candidates who run hard for what promise that I will use every legal means him at the 247th courthouse—out of they believe in, holding forth, especially available to me by that office to protect the 254 counties of this huge state— to the young, the image and reality of Texans and their property from the where he has campaigned this year. He someone saying boldly what he actually unconstitutional attack on the integrity was on track to stump at the courthous- believes needs to be said and done. of our land and property known as the es of the five biggest counties during the This is a journal of the historical Trans-Texas Corridor. I will enforce and week of October 16, shaking hands and record, among other things, so before uphold the Texas Constitutional prom- declaiming in Travis County, his 254th the election occurs, let it be recorded ise that runaway corporate monopolies courthouse, in Austin on October 20. here that in 2004 Van Os, a labor lawyer will not be allowed to devour democ- Not only is the stocky, bearded Van from San Antonio, won 41 percent of racy and free enterprise. I will defend Os the first leading Texas politician the Texas vote for the state Supreme the people of Texas from big oil and the since Ralph Yarborough to take his cam- Court, finishing two and a half points insurance jackals .... The office of attor- paign passionately to the small towns better than the 38 percent margin of ney general will belong to the people and lost little counties all over the state. in Texas. Van Os is running and I will be the people's lawyer." He is also the first leading political fig- this year on a platform that, if carried You may wish to keep in mind, my ure in the state since Jim Hightower to out, would not only profoundly change fellow Texans, that this is the official run an all-out populist campaign. As the state, but could also change, and nominee of the Texas Democratic Party his campaign literature says, "David has more profoundly, the nation. for the highest law-enforcement posi- proven day-in, day-out, that he stands Van Os said one self-identified tion in the state. He has been endorsed for the people of this great state, not its Republican rancher told him over lunch by both Jim Hightower and the Texas corporations." in Brady, "You know why we stopped AFL-CIO. Consider the phenomenal commit- votin' for the Democrats, don't you? Calling attention to Exxon Mobil ment and personal energy Van Os is They lost their kick-ass. We like you Corp.'s inconceivable net profit of $10.7 laying down every week of his campaign. because you've got some kick-ass." And billion in the first quarter of this year, In just four days in late September, for that he does. Van Os says: "In Texas we have always instance, he spoke at the county court- "The people of Texas are under attack stood against monopoly power. Our houses in Brownfield, Plains, Morton, today," he said in August, "from a reign Texas Constitution declares ... that Levelland, Littlefield, Muleshoe, Farwell, of greed, corruption, and arrogance at monopolies are contrary to the genius Dimmitt, Tulia, Plainview, Silverton, the hands of the corporate monopoly of free government and shall never be Memphis, Childress, Quanah, Crowell, robber barons and the crooked politi- allowed. We were the second politi- Paducah, Matador, Floydada, Crosbyton, cians who are their water boys. The cal jurisdiction in the world to enact and Lubbock. People are startled in rich lawyers and the ivory tower con- an antitrust statute—in the 1880s, a many of these little places to actually sultants who are telling Democrats not decade before the U.S. Congress passed see and hear, again or for the first time, to try to carry Texas this year are giving federal antitrust legislation. That first a walking, talking statewide Democratic the robber barons and their incumbent Texas antitrust law was drafted by then- candidate. Republican stooges exactly what they Attorney General James Stephen Hogg, Van Os charges that the five big-city want. In effect, those lawyers and their one of the great people's lawyers to Texas dailies all but ignore him, and he consultants are doing nothing less than occupy the offices' predicts they will continue to do so for protecting the silk-stocking Republican In Lufkin last June, Van Os said, "I've the rest of the election. (He concedes social clique that runs Texas govern- got a message to big oil companies. that the Houston Chronicle has run one ment as if it were a private club." You'd better spend every penny of your so-so story on his candidacy. In early In a deliberate affront to routine- billions to help defeat me because when October the Austin American-Statesman ly lying politicians, Van Os is making I get sworn in January, I'm coming after

16 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 you." Monopolies don't create jobs, he to take back the Senate, too. There he accepted the office. Where is his voice said, they downsize. "For example," he are only two ways the Bush admin- in this crisis? Why has he not spoken up said, "over 9,000 jobs were lost when istration can be properly investigated, on behalf of the constitutional rights of Exxon and Mobil merged... Already at while still in office, for its many crimes, his clients, the people of Texas?" least two state attorneys general, in especially for its war of aggression in Van Os, the Democratic nominee for Connecticut and California, are initiat- Iraq that has killed 2,700 Americans the highest law-enforcement office in ing challenges to the big oil companies and wounded more than 20,000 of our the state, promised this on February 8: under their states' antitrust and con- people, at a cost to the taxpayers of "As your new attorney general, I will sumer protection laws... One of my first almost $2 billion a month, while also file the lawsuits against the federal gov- actions after being sworn in... will be to killing or wounding some hundreds of ernment and federal officials, includ- initiate antitrust investigations of the thousands of Iraqis. If the House goes ing the president and attorney general, big oil barons." Democratic, impeachment charges can which individual Texans do not have Van Os has a strategy for victory. be initiated against President Bush by the means to file on their own, to Whether he'll win or not, he thinks he Congressman John Conyers Jr. from stop this headlong rush to trash our has it figured: The Democratic parties Michigan, who will then be chairman Constitution." in the five major cities regularly win of the Judiciary Committee, which has Knowing Van Os personally as I do, about 47 to 48 percent of the vote for charge of impeachments. But if the in my opinion, if the Democrats do statewide candidates, so to carry the Republicans keep control of the entire not win the U.S. House but Van Os is state, he calculates, he needs to swing Congress, the only chances left to hold elected, George W. Bush will be called over to voting for him one in 12 who this administration accountable while to account, to a serious extent, in his voted Republican last election. That is still in office abide right here in Texas. home state, for the high crimes and why he has spent almost all his time in In February Van Os said, "The argu- misdemeanors, including his war of the boondocks. ment that George Bush's puppet Alberto aggression in violation of the United The San Antonian, who is of Dutch Gonzales uses to defend illegal wiretap- Nations Charter, which he has commit- extraction, regards the Democrats' ping ... boils down to the outrageous ted as President. down-ticket candidates this year as the assertion that neither the Congress nor How much of any of this, I wonder, most populist in decades—he speci- the courts have any authority to place have our readers in the big cities learned fies Maria Luisa Alvarado, running for limits on whatever the president decides from their newspapers and television lieutenant governor, Hank Gilbert, for the Constitution means or an act of and radio stations? Damn little, if any. agriculture commissioner, and Fred Congress means ... As far as they are Well, you have learned it here. ■ Head, for comptroller. The official state concerned, there are no checks and bal Democratic Party embodied in the State ances, and they are the law. This is a trait Ronnie Dugger, founding editor and Democratic Executive Committee has of dictatorship, not democracy. then publisher of The Texas Observer, attracted Van Os' special wrath. "On "The Constitution and the Bill of Rights is the author of several books, including Saturday, August 26, at the Radisson belong to Texans just as much as to other biographies of Lyndon Johnson and Hotel in Austin," he charged, "members Americans," Van Os continued. "Texas Ronald Reagan. He now lives and of the SDEC attended a private lun- Attorney General Greg Abbott took an works in the Boston area. His e-mail is cheon to which Democratic candidates oath to uphold the Constitution when rdugger123@aol. corn. were not invited. At this luncheon, the members of the SDEC learned that a NASION*VMVUW'r small group of moneyed lawyers and • N'N their consultants are now providing the funding for the Texas Democratic Party's operations and will do so for the next four years." Van Os is convinced that the state party is ignoring him and the other populist candidates because their winning would upset the aspira- tions of all the tippie-toe Democrats, such as ex-Rep. Martin Frost of Dallas, who are scheming to win office in the state After Bush (A.B.). And what of the United States? P.O. Box 184 • Alpine TX, 79831-0184 • 432-837-2828 We Texans are, after all, a part of it. Looking for writers/reporters Democrats hope to win a majority of contact [email protected] the U.S. House and have a fair chance

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 17 ty/w, witk MOLLY IVINS A ROAST? HELL, NO! IT'S A BIM

Molly receiving the first-annual Molly prize from artist Mercedes Pena. photo by Alan Pogue

Thanks for a wonderful evening!

Garrison Keillor and Joe Ely serenaded Molly with "Today I Started Loving You Again" and "Waltz Across Texas" to open the evening. We listened to Lewis Lapham describe Molly as "a journalist who commits the crimes of arson, making her wit a book of matches." Kirk Watson entertained us with his dry wit and prodded us to dig deeper into our pockets. Jim Hightower delivered affectionate zingers. Molly's friends made us howl with laughter, and Joe Ely brought us to our feet with "This Land is Your Land." Mary Margaret Farabee and our indefatigable steering committee created a pitch-perfect evening.

A complete list of sponsors will appear on our Web site and in our next issue. In the meantime, to our roasters, donors, and steering committee members—to all who made our evening with Molly a rousing success—please accept an immense THANK YOU for hilarity, camaraderie, and inspiration. Thanks to you, the Observer has raised more than $375,000 toward our $500,000 challenge grant!

18 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 —Prisonville, continued from page 11 from an "existing project team that built two of the three [Raymondville jails]." This team is described in the letter as including "architects, contractors, facil- ity managers, and financial advisers," likely Corplan, Hale-Mills, Management & Training Corp., and Municipal Capital. Of this consortium, Loya writes, "The experience and knowledge will surpass any other group. This will allow for the ultimate success of the project and do so in the shortest amount of time.... Our team would need to present the con- ditions, terms, and recommendations?' (Loya did not return repeated phone a calls seeking comment.) t '&.• Reacting to concern from some coun- Y. ty officials about Parkey's involvement, "` Capital Markets' Harling led the negotia- State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. photo by Tom Pennington tions instead, telling Salinas, "This thing was designed by Homeland Security. Hales-Mills began work on the deten- worked as a "consultant" for Corplan They want it in Raymondville. George tion center, even as Parkey and Harling and Management & Training in 2003 Bush wants it?' worked to secure an option on the and 2004, according to records filed On June 19, the commissioners' court land from the Development Corp. of with the Texas Ethics Commission. He held the first public meeting on the the City of Raymondville. As the two had suspended his consulting work in federal detention center. As soon as the negotiated with the city, a new problem 2005 in the aftermath of the bribery agenda items were read, the court went arose when County Attorney Guerra scandal, but Hale-Mills hired him this into executive session for three hours began talking with Corrections Corp. year for the federal detention center with Harling. When they came out, the of America, the operator of the state project. Lucio says Hale-Mills paid him commissioners unanimously approved jail in Raymondville. Tennessee-based "to figure out what kind of impact this an agreement with the feds and cre- Corrections Corp. proposed an alter- will have on the community, to talk ated a local government corporation, native to the Management & Training to the general public to see what their similar in form and function to the offer: It would pay for the facility itself, feel is." public facility corporation, to float the put the building on the tax rolls, and Guerra alleges that Lucio made mul- bonds. When several members of the help bail out the floundering county tiple appearances in Raymondville audience asked for details, the commis- jail. The plan would eliminate the need pressuring the commissioners to sioners said "they couldn't say anymore" for county-issued bonds—and, inciden- select Management & Training over about their decision, Pickard recalls. As tally, the need for Municipal Capital, Corrections Corp. "As far as I'm con- it turns out, the agreement between Management & Training, Corplan, and cerned, had it not been for Eddie Lucio Homeland Security and the county was perhaps Hale-Mills. Guerra began the commissioners would not have gone only for two years, establishing a fixed working on Salinas and another com- and put the county in a $60 million rate of $79 per prisoner per day for the missioner, Emilio Vera, to reconsider. debt?' Guerra says. "In my opinion, in first year and $78 for the second. Under (Vera did not return numerous phone his position as a senator he let our com- the terms of the deal, 500 beds would calls seeking comment.) missioners, including me, know where have to be ready by August 2. It would Hale-Mills had taken a big gamble; it he stood... Once your senator lets you be up to the county to sign contracts was working on a project with no guar- know what he wants, it's hard to go with prison companies to design, build, antee, and local officials were waffling on against [him]." Lucio, calling Guerra "a finance, and run the detention center. their commitment to the Management political enemy?' denies that he leaned The same day the commissioners & Training consortium. The county on county officials: "I have never, ever were ostensibly approving the project, nonprofit corporation in charge even approached anyone and any board down the consortium's construction firm temporarily tabled the bond offer while here that I try to do business with or Hale-Mills already had equipment on it reviewed the competing offer. where I represent a client in any manner the proposed site, despite the fact that The consortium needed a deal closer that would send the wrong message in the prison companies did not own and found one in state Sen. Eddie Lucio terms of my approach?' Lucio concedes the land. The day after the meeting, Jr. The Brownsville Democrat had that he met with Guerra in Harlingen

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19 in late June, but only "as a businessman, showing the detention facility generat- new detention facility, after Harling not as a state senator." ing up to $10.6 million in the first two provided a personal check for $15,000 Nonetheless, he acknowledges that he years and $13.6 million in the third. as a down payment. put in a good word for his friends. "I The impressive figures primarily rest County Judge Salinas says he believes thought it was going to be another com- on the assumption that in addition to the facility will provide the revenue pany that was being considered," Lucio $2.25 per prisoner per day, the coun- the other jails failed to generate. "It's said, "that was when I told [Guerra] that ty will receive $48 for each detainee on paper—they can't back out," he I felt MTC [Management & Training once an occupancy level of 1,800 is says. But even Harling admits those Corp.] would do a good job." achieved. The official bond statement revenue amounts are not written in By July 17, the consortium prevailed, does not guarantee this. In fact, it lists stone. "I don't think there's anything and county officials approved $60.7 an "amount up to $48" after the inves- written that guarantees that," he told million in bonds that must be paid tors are paid, Management & Training the Observer. "It's just a 'what if.'" off in the unusually short period of gets its cut of $28.75 a prisoner per Actually, there are lots of "what ifs." two-and-a-half years at 6 percent inter- day, and all other possible expenditures The monthly debt service the county est. Harling won the wavering county have been exhausted. must maintain is $2.7 million, which, officials with the promise of future On July 24, the county signed an according to the official bond docu- millions. He whipped up spreadsheets option to purchase the land for the ments, can only be achieved with the detention center 90 percent filled each month. In addition, Homeland Security Explore unmpress.com has only signed its contract with the county for two yeai-s. After that, the Books spanning the culture & history of the Southwest county will have to negotiate with a • American Indians • Literature new administration. • Anthropology On August 3, President Bush arrived • Biographies in the Valley, the day after the first • Archaeology • Chicano/a Studies batch of detainees moved into their • Art & Photography • Architecture temporary home. Only 45 days ear- • Travel & Recreation • Environment lier, the Raymondville site had been a cotton field. Almost overnight, several tentlike, Kevlar-covered, beige modular University of pods, each holding 200 detainees, had New Mexico Press sprung up. Bush discussed the impor- UNMPRESS.COM • 800.249.7737 tance of the new detention beds and marveled at the "new prosperity" in the region. "Gosh, it wasn't all that long ago that... the economy was tough down here. It was kind of farming, and that was all," he said. Guerra notes the timing of the deten- tion center's opening and the presi- dent's visit. "It's a political project," he says. "This George Bush appearance in the Valley cost us $60 million. "They kind of paint a pretty picture," continues Guerra. "Once they line their pockets, they saddle their horses and go their own way." Still, Salinas, who is retiring as county judge, is dream- ing of the great things Willacy County can do with what he sees as a financial KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, creates innovative television that inspires and windfall. "You can't imagine what relief educates not just in Austin, but throughout all of Texas. KLRU explores taxpayers will have," he says. "Maybe politics with Texas Monthly Talks; makes learning fun with The Biscuit klru someday, someday we'll have enough Brothers and Central Texas Gardener; and showcases live music with tv and beyond Austin City Limits. Look for these KLRU programs on your local. PBS stations. klru.org revenue from [the federal jail and the detention center] to not have taxes." ■

20 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006

• POETRY BY DAVID GARZA

CASUALTY NO. 94 IN THE TURF WAR BETWEEN PROGRESS THE CARTELS, 2006 The brown spine straight out of the earth, What he saw after falling, still and everything else halfway buried. cradling his son in his arms, was the face, As if she had crawled broadened again by an innocent gaze he'd lost years ago, from the fires at the heart of the world and tiny somehow. Inverted. and, breaking the surface, What they destroyed with their shot found not an escape but another cruel fire was the rest of the world around him: that ended her scream with fresh ashes. the wet head of lettuce rolling between the muddy car wheels, Now the tongue in despair, bent between lips or a buggy-horse tasting the foul summer air. unconvinced of their tint. Now a collection of vowels lost to the sky, Even the meat continued to turn another day's air still trapped in the throat. in the windows behind, boastful and slow like the planets. Had she been born in some other age, she could never have owned her own plastic. Everything loud was now silent: As fresh air cooled on his back, and grew, the innocent face he'd already lost was once again lost in the swell of the tear. FREIGHT

When the trains came through in those days, I was a rail in love with the wheel, scalding and still under hours of light. I'd been laid for the thrill of the moment when the press of the freight and whistling steel pinned me like game to the earth, threatening to crush with all its slow weight, only to pass toward night.

DAVID GARZA was born and raised along the Mexican border in Laredo. He graduated from Princeton University in 1998. He currently lives in Austin, where he coordinates the Spanish-language programming for the Texas Book Festival and serves as Managing Director for the Cinematexas International Short Film Festival. —Naomi Shihab Nye

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 21

_4 BOOKS Si THE CULTURE Cormac McCarthy Imagines the End BY STEVEN G. KELLMAN houses have long since been pillaged by downright Miltonic is the elegant claim other wretched survivors, but when the that the man and the boy are "each The Road man and the boy stumble upon shelter the other's world entire." However, By Cormac McCarthy and a cache of canned goods, they dare McCarthy resists the temptation to lux- Alfred A. Knopf not linger, lest they be found and eaten uriate in the sinuous, lyrical sentences 244 pages, $24 by other famished human beings. So, that are his signature in the Border wary, weary, and bedraggled, the man Trilogy. Though he continues to sow his is the way the world and the boy, emblems of homelessness recondite terms (crozzled, gyrus, chert,

ends—not with a bang, but transformed into a . universal condition, claggy) throughout his text, the baroque two guys on the open road. push a broken shopping cart loaded profusion has been pruned, the lav- True, it is not quite open, with all their possessions southward, ish style clarified in the way butter or . since the tarmac in spots down the vacant road. beer is clarified, reduced to a limpid IT has buckled and the occa- In addition to a pistol with one sublimate. The Road begins in incanta- sional capsized tractor-trailer impedes remaining bullet, the man carries a tion, in bardic evocation of a dream the easy passage. Moreover, one of the guys tattered road map that the reader never man experiences while sleeping under a is a boy. In his latest book, Cormac gets to see. However, the topography of plastic tarpaulin in the cold, dark woods. McCarthy conjures up a quintessen- the journey suggests that the man and Despite occasional involuntary visita- tially American scenario, though his the boy start where McCarthy began tions of dreams and memories ("You postapocalyptic pilgrims are not Dean his work, in Tennessee, and move forget what you want to remember and Moriarty and Sal Paradise, Dennis southward toward the Gulf of Mexico. you remember what you want to forget," Hopper and Peter Fonda, or Bob Hope After wandering through the American says the man), McCarthy's spare prose and Bing Crosby. A man and his young Southwest, in his Border Trilogy (1992- is refined and annealed to a gist: a man son make their way south, in quest 99) and No Country for Old Men (2005), and a boy on the road. of warmer weather. Both man and the author of Suttree (1979) and Child When the man states that they are boy remain nameless, as if all sto- of God (1974) has returned to his roots about 200 miles away from the coast ries of fathers and sons come down to write another Southern novel, albeit "as the crow flies," the idiom is gibberish to this desperate, elemental pairing, one in which the entire world has now to the boy, who has never seen a crow some time and some place. Their prog- gone south. A pack of marauding can- or anything else that flies. The prem- ress is slow, a few miles a day, because nibals who pass while the man and the ise that some unspecified catastrophe they travel on foot and their feet are boy lie hiding might have wandered could exterminate all species on earth cushioned with makeshift shoes. They in from Blood Meridian, McCarthy's except for a few scattered specimens journey through an ashen landscape of 1985 novel about a brutal band of scalp- of Homo sapiens flies in the face of pervasive desolation: "The ponderous hunters who wreak havoc through- what we know about ecology. However, counterspectacle of things ceasing to out the southwestern United States McCarthy is unabashedly anthropo- be. The sweeping waste, hydroptic and and northern Mexico. The image of centric, and he is less interested in coldly secular. The silence." a headless infant skewered on a spit constructing an experiment in envi- The boy, who appears to be about brands The Road as the handiwork of ronmental science than in devising a eight, has never known another world. McCarthy, the grim reaper of contem- fable about human identity within a Some months before his birth, almost porary novelists. And the bleak vision universe in which neither sea nor sky is all life on earth was destroyed. The behind the plot is familiar to readers of ever blue, and night brings "a blackness trees, now inert poles that unpredictably his earlier books. The man, we are told, without depth or dimension." Beyond crash to the grassless ground, hold no "walked out in the gray light and stood its futuristic, apocalyptic premise, birds, nor does the sea—"one vast salt and he saw for a brief moment the what is most striking about The Road sepulcher"—contain any fish. Not even absolute truth of the world. The cold is the urgent bonding of the man and insects have endured. Rather than mere- relentless circling of the intestate earth. the boy, who each live for and because ly envying the dead, the boy's mother Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of of the other. Fiercely protective of his joined them, fashioning her bare bod- the sun in their running. The crushing vulnerable young son, his only link to kin out of a slice of obsidian. For her black vacuum of the universe." a life he would just as soon abandon, husband and son, existence has been John Milton's famous rendition of the man takes on the full-time task reduced to two objectives: staying warm hell as "darkness visible" echoes in the of child care. He is the boy's teacher, and finding food. Grocery stores and phrase "darkness implacable." Also instructing him in the rudiments of

22 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 literacy, though reading and writing McCarthy has made a wager with the are superfluous to the survival skills future. Each sentence is , an expectation (5 server reaers ore he also passes on. When they chance that the world to come refutes the fable upon an undamaged can of beans or of The Road. peaches, he feeds the boy first and has It is customary to invoke William SMART to be chided into taking a portion for Faulkner in discussions of Cormac himself. During moments of danger, McCarthy, to note the latter's rococo PROGRESSIVE it is the boy's safety, not his own, that style and anoint him as avatar of the determines the course of action the Great Southern Novelist. But The Road INVOLVED man pursues. Much literary history is has much less in common with the a rogue's gallery of monstrous fathers— Yoknapatawpha County cycle than it INFLUENTIAL Cronus, who devours his offspring; does with the bleak house built by GOOD LOOKING Titus Andronicus, who murders his Samuel Beckett. Though the novel's own son, Mutius; Huck Finn's sottish doleful nomads are described as "the Pap; Dostoevsky's overbearing Fyodor walking dead in a horror film," they t9 are 06server oavertisersr Karamazov; D.H. Lawrence's brutish could be walk-ons from a Beckett play. Walter Morel; Henry Roth's Albert Terse exchanges between the man and Schearl. But the man in The Road is a the boy resemble the pointless dialogue paragon of paternal solicitude and love. between Vladimir and Estragon in Yet in some ways, the boy is father Waiting for Godot. "What are our long Get noticed by Texas Observer to the man, his better self. When term goals?" asks the boy. folks all over the state and nation. they encounter a stranger, the boy's instinct is to share their meager store "What? Let them know about your of provisions. The father learns—or "Our long term goals. bookstore, service, restaurant, relearns—compassion from his son. "Mere did you hear that? non-profit organization, event, Eager to think the best of others, the "I don't know. political candidate, shoe store, coffee boy longs for companions. By contrast, "No, where did you? house, boutique, salon, yoga studio, law practice, etc. his father is armored in suspicion, but it "You said it. is his instinct to assume the worst about "When? strangers that 'saves the two on more "A long time ago. than one occasion. In the dialectic of "What was the answer? father and son, of cynicism and ideal- "I don't know. ism, a tentative code of ethics is reborn "Well. I don't either. Come on. It's after everything else has been destroyed. getting dark." What sustains the two is a belief that they are "the good guys" who "carry It's getting dark all over, and Godot J the fire" in a dark world. Evidence of never comes. Meanwhile, McCarthy cannibalism is everywhere, but the man offers a clear-eyed guide to how, though TbeTexasObserver assures the boy that good guys don't eat we can't go on, we go on. It is, despite people. However, neither traveler can everything, a bracing potion, one for be confident that any other good guys the road. ■ ADVERTISE remain alive anywhere. IN At one point, the man comes upon Steven G. Kellman teaches comparative THE OBSERVER! the ruins of a library, its shelves tipped literature at the University of Texas at San over and thousands of tarnished vol- Antonio and is the author of Redemption: REASONABLE RATES • GREAT EXPOSURE umes lying bloated in pools of water. The Life of Henry Roth (Norton). Before rushing back out to the cold, gray Call 512-477-0746 and ask for Julia Austin light of the road, he thumbs through a ore-mail [email protected] book without actually reading it. "He'd LETTERS TO THE EDITORS not have thought the value of the small- est thing predicated on a world to come," keg, O'eserver renaersr 307. W 7th Street we are told. "It surprised him. That Consider advertising your business the space which these things occupied Austin, TX 78701 or non-profit in the Observer. was itself an expectation." Though the world he depicts in the pages of his [email protected] GOOD FOR YOU • GOOD FOR THE OBSERVER books could hardly seem more hopeless,

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 23 BOO S THE CULTURE Out of Africa BY DAVID THEIS

`A Fiction of Authenticity: Contemporary African Art Abroad" Blaffer Gallery Houston September 9 — November 11, 2006

hen you pull up in front of the University of Houston's Blaffer Gallery, headed for the gallery's "A Fiction of Authenticity: Contemporary African Art Abroad" exhibition, you might be forgiven for thinking you're about to enter a rather frightening comedy club. That's because of the S_LAUGHTER installation up on the Blaffer wall. A flickering neon "sign" SLAUGHTER created by South African artist Kendell Geers, the piece consists of a large, upper-case, red-neon depiction of the word SLAUGHTER, but with a flick- ering "S", so that the message of the "word" alternates between "slaugh- ter" and "laughter." If you know S_ LAUGHTER serves as a kind of adver- Kendell Geers and K.O. Lab, "S_LAUGHTER',' 2003 (installation view) tisement for an exhibition of contem- Neon tube sign, digital neon controller, aluminum armature, 32 x 7 feet. porary African art, and if you know the exhibition's purpose is to question corporation, is there any point in answer was always "no.") whether such a thing as "African Art," insisting on geographic "authenticity?" In fact, this exhibition flickers about or even African identity, exists, you can These questions don't apply to every- as much as the sign. Some pieces raise begin to ponder the questions raised by one. If a French artists move to the valid questions. Other installations Geers' mischievous "S." United States, no one asks if their art make points that seem obvious and Is Africa indeed a dark continent, is authentically European. The French topspin deficient. The exhibition is long home to disease and rampant slaughter, artist is recognized as an autonomous on concept and a bit short on aesthetic or is it the land of happy, upbeat individual. But for a Nigerian painter pleasure, while the most emotionally music that makes you want to smile, (say), the question often does become, engaging seem to have little to do with if not laugh? Is the notion that art "Yes, but is it African?" the rest of the show. can somehow be authentically "African" The blinking "S" (and the rest of the The main gallery downstairs features a inherently funny for Geers and many of exhibition) does inspire these questions mix of the strongest and weakest pieces. the other artists? After all, Geers is white, and musings, along with other, more Mary Evans was born in Lagos, Nigeria, as are several of the other artists here. critical ones about the quality of the but now resides in London. (All the All have left the continent. Geers lives exhibit. Is a malfunctioning sign a good artists were born in Africa but now live in Belgium; others are scattered across enough joke? Does it "have enough abroad.) Her kaleidoscope, which isn't Europe and the United States. So—are topspin?" as Donald Barthelme used much more than a toy, gets the exhibi- they still "African?" In a globalized to ask when his one of writing stu- tion off to an underwhelming start. But era, when artists travel like any other dents attempted to commit irony. (The she shares a gallery with one of show's

24 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 part is American, and what part is sim- ply Odita? These are questions without answers, of course, and that's the point. None of the other artists takes on the issues the exhibition wants to raise quite so directly. Instead, some of the artists toy with prefab notions of what it means to be "African." Moshekwa Langa, from South Africa and Amsterdam, has created a series of large-scale paintings that tell a fictional "origin of man" story, which plays off of the idea that Africa is indeed the mother continent of us all. Langa's figures are flat and aboriginal looking, but have a bemused moder- nity to them. The male figure in "Lame Lamb," which shows Langa's version of Adam and Eve, has a sort of cockeyed look to him, as if he's asking himself. "How the heck did I wind up in an 'ori- gin of man' story?" Siemon Allen, a South African now Moshewka Langa, "Dawn", 2003. living in Virginia, raises the question of Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 93 inches how much attention the West really pays to his home country. He fills a wall with most striking installations, the one that these colors also refer to the "American pages from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch makes the most of the exhibition's ques- kitsch" Odita grew up with in Ohio.) that include references to South Africa tioning of African authenticity. Odili The juxtaposition of Nigerian draw- that are highlighted. At first his idea Donald Odita, born in Nigeria, raised ings and modernist abstractions by the seems glib. How much copy should the in Ohio, and now living in Florida, has same artist provide a dose of visual plea- St. Louis Post-Dispatch devote to South a set of sketches and a wall full of paint- sure and raise the following questions: Africa? It's a big world. But examining ings that are in dialogue with each other. What part of the art is African, what the features that made the paper opened The sketches are drawings Odita made during a visit to Nigeria. They show street musicians, young students of the Koran, and a masked woman, among other faces. Some women are dressed more or less in Western style. One draw- ing is a palimpsest. Beneath a drawing of a woman in a business suit, we see the same woman dressed in tribal robes, wearing large, hooped earrings. These depictions capture a complex reality. Africa is tribal. Africa is Muslim. Africa is modern. (Actually, I guess I should say "Nigeria.") But the curators have gone one step further by having the large, abstract paintings that Odita made in the United States face the sketches; one set of imag- es challenges the other. The abstracts feature sharp-edged, diagonal, and dia- mond-shaped figures in a variety of colors, some of which (such as ochre, a color associated with African textiles) Moshewka Langa, "Flatten", 2003. seem to evoke Africa. (The catalog says Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 93 inches

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 25 my eyes. A disproportionate number deal with the takeover of Miller Beer by a South African brewer. (St. Louis is the home of Anheuser-Busch Cos. The show was created by Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.) Several stories are about South African athletes. Many are about South African whites. (In fact, Allen is white.) The most wrenching is about the return of the remains of Saarti Baartman from Paris to South Africa. Known in Europe as the "Hottentot Venus," Baartman was a black South African woman who was regarded as a freak by early 19th century Paris. She was put on display, and customers paid to check out her buttocks. When she died, her remains were put on view in a Paris museum, where they remained until the 1970s. An assemblage of photos by Godfried Donkor (Ghana and London) has its own story to tell, but again it's one that doesn't jump off the wall. Donkor has put together a collection of black and white photos taken in Kumsai, Ghana, London, and St. Louis. At first glance they read like a typical photo album, tinged with nostalgia. Then you real- ize that Donkor has woven together images from all three cities, and it's not so easy to figure out which image comes from which country. Donkur makes a good point about the rigid ideas of how different life must be in three such different places. The rest of the didactic pieces don't work as well. Meschac Gaba (Benin and the Netherlands) has a superficially witty piece that pokes fun at archeo- logical practices in Africa, and also at the idea that only antique art is truly "African." He bought some everyday items at flea markets, then buried them in the St. Louis museum's construction site. During construction, his artifacts were "discovered:' He presents them here as artistic treasures and asks us to imagine how accurate a picture an archeologist would get of our society Top: Mary Evans "Scope," 2003 (installation view). by studying our garbage. I got the point, Laser cut vinyl on glass window panes, 39 1/ inches diameter each, kaleidoscopes and camera tripods but again, there's not enough topspin. Bottom: Meschac Gaba "Doleur Contemporaine," 2003. The installation I struggled most Excavated domestic objects, glass and aluminum tables with collaged globes with was that of Ingrid Mwangi, an African-German. Mwangi appears in a video that is projected onto robes

26 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 hanging from the gallery walls. She is —Debate, continued from page 7 have emerged during the campaign. Yet pregnant and naked from the waist up, Mexico, Felipe Calderon. he was never humiliated on a detailed talking very seriously about her pow- Bell • was the sharpest of the four. He point of public policy, of which he ers as a woman, which she attempts to was asked a trick question in the light- admittedly knows little. Asked to assess illustrate by making a series of ritual- ning round, "What's the term limit for his performance, the Kinkster declared, like moves and sounds. According to Texas governor," and the Democrat "I'm still voting for myself" the catalog, with this display of power produced the line of the night: "There Strayhorn appeared with each arm she's critiquing the western image of is no term limit for Texas governor, and draped over a granddaughter and two the African female as a helpless victim. that's why people should be horrified— of her sons, Mark and Scott McLellan, But for me she played nicely into other because Rick Perry says he plans to run standing behind her. (Scott, you'll recall, conventions about the "African earth for another term if he's successful this is a former White House spokesman.) mother." Mwangi presents herself as time. That's the best reason I can give Given her dismal debate performance, a stereotypical African, colorful and you tonight to vote for me." the scene had the feel of a farewell mysteriously powerful. Perry tried to remain above the fray tour. It's worth remembering, though, It's Zineb Sedira's video and photog- and emerged relatively unscathed. The that the self-proclaimed One Tough raphy installation that I will remember governor fiercely defended his most Grandma still has more than $5 million the longest and think about most. I controversial policies, especially the in campaign cash to spend. was about to point out the irony of Trans-Texas Corridor plan. Perry's And then there was Perry. Or, more Sedira's presence in the show; she is lone moment of unease came, oddly, accurately, there were Perry's surrogates, Algerian, and her video examines how during his closing statement, which he who confidently declared victory to the her family dealt with the hardships of appeared to read from notes. He twice media and walked out. living in France. My first thought was lost his place and fumbled sentences. The debate seemed unlikely to that this installation would make more It's also worth noting that Perry's clos- dramatically alter the race's dynam- sense in a show about the Middle East, ing statement contained his only obvi- ic. Perhaps the night's most striking because it deals with what I think of as ous attack of the night, and he aimed it, aspect was how much the whole epi- "Middle Eastern" tensions. But, of course, interestingly enough, at Bell—accus- sode seemed emblematic of the current Algeria is in Africa, after all. The artist's ing the Democrat of supporting big political moment in Texas. Consider the point is that "Africa" is, in fact, a rather government. That may indicate that recent controversies: The state plans to imprecise word. Perry's camp considers Bell the one grab farm land using eminent domain In any case, I was haunted by Sedira's remote threat to the governor's re-elec- for a megahighway for which the con- video, which projects three separate tion. It also served to further minimize tract—recently signed with a Spanish images, of her mother, her father, and Strayhorn. company—still hasn't been made fully herself. The father speaks in French The post-debate news conferences public; power companies try to build about his travails as an Algerian worker offered revealing contrasts of styles. 17 new coal-fired power plants, though in France, and predicts war between the Bell was the first to venture into the Texas already leads the nation in mer- French and the Arabs "in 40 years, maybe lobby to meet with the press in front cury pollution; and the Texas Ethics 100." Her mother speaks in Arabic about of a backdrop with "Belo" scrawled all Commission considers a rule that the obstacles she faced as a mother and over it—lest we forget who was bring- would allow public officials to receive an Algerian woman in an openly racist ing us our public debate. Standing with cash "gifts" without having to disclose society. The third image is projected so his wife, Alison, Bell announced he the amount. The small cadre of rich that Sedira is facing her parents, listen- would receive significant new financial men running the state has rarely seemed ing intently as they recount their suffer- support from wealthy trial lawyer John more powerful or secretive. ings. She is dressed in a cosmopolitan, O'Quinn. The attorney who helped So it seemed appropriate that the "post-ethnic" style. Because of her par- win the state's tobacco lawsuit later most public of political events—a can- ents' sacrifices, she's crossed over into said he would pledge $1 million to Bell didates' debate—took place in a stu- the brave new world of flexible borders and raise another $4 million. "He's dio deep inside a media corporation's and recognition as an individual, rather not going to lose for lack of money," sprawling complex, walled off from than member of a race. O'Quinn promised reporters. the public and the press (save for the I'm not sure if Sedira's work has Kinky was next, and the musician- three reporters asking questions), while broadened my mind regarding African author paced behind the podium while everyone else watched on television. identity, but the poignancy of the work firing off one-liners he probably should And when it was over, the state's highest makes quite a statement about racism, have used in the debate ("Rick Perry is public official bolted out the back door identity, and immigration. ■ the well-lubricated head of a well-oiled under the cover of darkness. * political machine. He says nothing and David Theis is the author of the novel Rio does nothing"). Kinky was hammered in Additional writing and reporting Ganges. He lives in Houston. the debate for past racist comments that contributed by Jake Bernstein.

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 27 BOOKS & TIRE CULTURE Sweet, Civilized, and Sapped BY JAMES E. MCWILLIAMS Expedition" up the Ouachita River More than any kind of preconceived through Louisiana and into southern racial notions, this question shaped the The Forgotten Expedition, Arkansas to record the region's flora, European view that the Native Americans 1804-1805: fauna, weather, geography, and the hab- were hopeless savages deserving either The Louisiana Purchase its of its indigenous people. Their trip coerced enlightenment or outright Journals of Dunbar and Hunter (which coincided with a severe cold extermination. Europeans proceeded to Edited by Trey Berry, Pam Beasley, and snap) lasted a little over three months denude the environment of its resources Jeanne Clements and culminated in the scientists' wel- so thoroughly that over the course of a Louisiana State University come arrival at the "hot springs," a place few generations, they removed almost 248 pages, $29. currently known as "the American spa." 90 percent of the Northeast's forest The journey was not epic, and jour- cover. Today, as a result of these efforts, f professional historians have nals do not always lend themselves to there is not a single patch of old-growth accomplished anything in the easy reading. Interminable descriptions forest in Connecticut. Salmon was once last generation, it has been to of minerals and rock consistency, for so abundant that settlers used it to bring an environmental sensi- example, are compounded by the fact fertilize crops. (When was the last time bility to the forefront of his- that Hunter and Dunbar kept separate you've had wild New England salmon?) torical analysis. This has been diaries, wrote about the same topics, Beaver were hunted (for fur to line hats) fertile change. The lens through which and frequently copied snippets from so thoroughly in the 17th century that Americans of historical importance each other. Reading them to grasp the colonial mill owners had to start build- viewed the landscape, not to mention historical narrative can be redundant. ing man-made dams to replace the ones the terms they used to describe what Nevertheless, perhaps for a reason the that the beaver once maintained. This they saw, cuts to the core of human editors never intended, they're worth litany of environmental degradation motivation far better than a boilerplate plowing through. After all, when you was the result of people making bad political speech or a rhetorically bloated consider that it's possible today to stay at environmental decisions in the name declaration. When John Winthrop, the luxury hotels in Hot Springs, Arkansas, of progress. They were decisions, more- first governor of Massachusetts, prom- that pipe water from the springs into over, integral to the development of ised to establish a "city on a hill" in the your marble bathtub, and then compare American capitalism and, by extension, wilderness of eastern Massachusetts, or that fact with Dunbar and Hunter's the development of American freedom. when the 19th-century pioneer Solon observation that only a few haggard cab- Hunter and Dunbar quickly reveal Robinson described the first Midwestern ins sat around the once-lonely springs, how the exploitative approach to the prairie he saw as "a mine of wealth," or the pace of environmental change in North American environment, as well when Frederick Jackson Turner sur- the United States becomes an issue beg- as the racial ideology supporting it, con- mised the downfall of democracy based ging for explanation. These journals, if tinued to infect the early republic. On on the closing of the frontier, some- read properly, offer important clues as November 11, 1804, Dunbar encoun- thing fundamental about the American to why we as a nation have allowed the tered a group of Creek and Washita character crystallized. Figurehead his- transition from cabin to luxury high- Indians living along the Ouachita River. torians will reliably churn out tomes rise to happen as if the change was as Here is what he said about them in his on the Founding Fathers, Lincoln, and natural and inexorable as the jet stream. journal: "These people content them- war, but a growing number of the pro- The environmental approach requires selves with making corn barely suf- fession's archive rats have seized on a little context. The earliest European ficient for making bread during the the environment as the starting point migrants to North America—French, year; in this manner they always remain for understanding American history in Dutch, Spanish, and English—mar- extremely poor; some few who have refreshingly earthy terms. veled at the resources they encountered. conquered their habits of indolence This trend toward environmental his- Dense forests, rivers, and oceans teem- (which are always a consequence of the tory makes The Forgotten Expedition, ing with fish, a landscape rich with Indian mode of life) and addicted them- 1804 - 1805 a well-timed addition to the embedded iron ore, woods crawling selves to agriculture, live more comfort- ceaseless literature on the Louisiana with game—all these factors made the ably and taste a little of the sweets of Purchase. William Dunbar and George Europeans collectively drool with greed. civilized life." There's a transcendent Hunter were the Louis and Clark of They also inspired a loaded question: historical truth somewhere in here, and the South. At the behest of Thomas Why hadn't this cornucopia of wealth I wish the editors had done more in Jefferson, they undertook their "Grand been exploited? their perfunctory introduction to tease

28 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 it out, but the gist of it has something to do with the instinctual association of "indolence" with failure to produce for an invisible market. Granted, enjoying "the sweets of civi- lized life" sounds like a harmless enough goal. In reality, those sweets required an environmentally myopic vision that today is too often, and too easily, inter- preted as rugged individualism. Dunbar and Hunter perhaps deservedly come off as a couple of backcountry badas- ses. They endure the elements, they kill their own food, they don't complain, they confront the "savages" without hesitation. From the environmentalist perspective it's clear that their interest in the natural world only extended to how it could serve their material needs. A tangle of grapevines suggested that the surrounding hills will "reward the labors of an expert Vigneron." The pro- liferation of bears might have satiated the communal palette, but what. really mattered was the bear's oil, "which at New Orleans is always of ready sale." Acorns did not inspire an appreciation of tremendous oak copses, or a com- mon food source for Native Americans, but rather the telling observation that they were "fattening for hogs." The "foli- :47 l e FORGOTTEN age of the hickory and the oak" elicited not comments on the region's natu- DITION, 1804-1805 ral beauty, but solicitations for "the Naturalist who directs his researches THE LOUISIANA. PURCHASE JOURNALS OF to the discovery of new objects for the DUNBAR. AND HUNTER use of the Dyer." The "white tenacious clay" along the banks was "fit for the potter's ware." Rocks were not even TREY BERRY, PAM BEASLEY, AND JEANNE CLEM.ENTS rocks, they're future mill stones.

m I making too much of the explorers' tendency to see final products instead of A natural formations? In light for subsistence purposes, but rather for marketplace, not a wilderness. While of Dunbar's warning that "we must explicitly commercial intentions. The striking Franldinesque poses of scientific beware of presuming to set bounds editors—who work as historians and inquiry, Dunbar and Hunter shared the to the power of nature," Dunbar and museum directors—might have done mentality of a common land developer. Hunter's keen perceptions seem to more to bring out this motivation so In this sense, they foretell the future strike a sound chord of innovation deeply embedded in the journals. There more than they shed light on the past. rather than evoke the insidious specter is little doubt that, like the first settlers Nowhere was their emerging capital- of environmental exploitation. What's on the East Coast, these backcountry istic mindset more pronounced than in critical to understand, though, is that explorers were commercially minded the explorers' descriptions of the soil. Dunbar and Hunter are rapacious men who were carefully packaging the "The superstratum," writes Dunbar, "is observers who work from the landscape for Mr. Jefferson in a way of blackish brown color from 8 to 12 assumption that one does not produce that highlighted its great potential as a inches deep, lying upon a yellowish

OCTOBER 20, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 29 -.4.01...brawieseowla0101%,

basis, the whole intermixed with some land that the explorers describe of its philosophy that rewarded specializa- stone and gravel." "The land appears native grasses, and—as their forbears tion over diversity, quantity over qual- rich," agreed Hunter, a testament to "the had done back east after removing old ity, and short-term gain over long-term work of ages." Dunbar again: "The land growth forests—replaced the grass with ecological stability, fell into place. The here is of excellent quality, being a rich large stands of merchantable crops— philosophy is still with us today. black mold to the depth of a foot, under mostly corn, wheat, and cotton, but also But its manifestations are luxury which there is a friable loam of a brown- vegetables, sugar beets and other tubors, hotels in Arkansas with water from the ish liver color." Dunbar and Hunter and expansive orchards. The rationale hot springs piping through their tubes. had virtually nothing to say about the behind this transition responded, as it Dunbar and Hunter would undoubt- native grasses that not only grew in this had in the previous century, to market edly have appreciated such a tasty tidbit soil, but kept it healthy. It's what they forces. It was (or it was thought) more of the sweet and civilized life, especially envisioned doing with this rich soil profitable for farmers to practice mono- after three hard months out in the frigid that really mattered. The landscape, as cultural agriculture and ship massive elements. How they would have felt Dunbar saw it, "will itself become good loads of a single crop to urban markets about the hotel being the only thing soil when broken up and exposed to the than it was to practice diversified agri- capable of growing out of soil that's influences of the elements." The fields of culture serving local needs. The lush been trampled and depleted by cattle grass were not the basis for a diversified natural grasses, given these imperatives, and staple crops is another matter alto- system of production that the Washita had to be either exploited or removed. gether. We can read these journals—as and Creeks had achieved, but rather For a time they were exploited—mostly we have read the Lewis and Clark jour- places that "lie handsomely for cultiva- to graze cattle. Soon this option was nals—for a gee-whiz peek into a time tion!' Cultivation of what? Hunter had swamped by a market logic that reward- when "the sweets of civilized life" were the answer, and it was a prophetic one: ed removal. This meant the concentra- few and far between. More productively, "The soil ... is tolerably good for cotton, tion of livestock into confined feedlots. we can read them for a deeper under- wheat, Corn, &cc." Farmers pursuing this option eventu- standing of the mentality sanctioning At the time, no one could have appre- ally reasoned that it was cheaper and the environmental destruction that has ciated the import of this short, seem- more efficient to fatten livestock with made those sweets integral to a whacked- ingly harmless list. Little could have corn than to allow them free range out notion of progress. ■ known how dramatically the land west across native prairie grass. Hence, the of the Mississippi would quickly be golden sheaves' rise to prominence as James E. McWilliams's second book, transformed once Hunter's predictions the native grasses (comprising what one Building the Bay Colony, comes out in of staple-crop cultivation came to frui- observer called "earth oceans") retreated the spring. He is currently working on a tion throughout the 19th century. Alas, to the margins of cultivation. Around book about the history of insect control in western pioneers stripped much of the this transformation an agricultural the United States.

The Texas Observer

BRAZOS BOOKSTORE invite you to join us for an evening with

SWANEE HUNT

Director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard She will be discussing her new book Half-Life of a Zealot A Memoir Thursday, Nov. 9 • 7:00 p.m. 2421 Bissonnet St. • Houston

30 THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 20, 2006 T 0 I BY JIM HIGHTOWER ilas Manitas Para Siempre!

Cynthia and Lidia Perez photo , by Alan Pogue

11.1 he right-wing honcho of the multibillion-dollar this Austin treasure will be accommodated. J. Willard then Marriott hotel chain, a man named J. Willard bulled his way into the fray. In an explosion of ignorance and Marriott, is supposed to be a smart business guy. arrogance, he thumbed his nose at the Perez sisters'and all of But when it comes to understanding anything Austin. "Why should you hold up a several hundred million about getting along with local folks, Mr. J. could dollar investment because of a small little restaurant?" he use a few lessons. He recently buzzed through asked. "The restaurant can relocate and should relocate." Austin, where an outfit called White Lodgings Development He might as well have climbed atop the Texas Capitol dome Corp. plans to raze an entire downtown block and throw up and urinated on us as to throw that little public tantrum. not one, not two, but three Marriott hotels. Problem is, the Besides, Marriott already has three hotels downtown—let rubble that those bulldozers would create includes Las Manitas, him move. a Congress Avenue eatery that is a true Austin icon. This small, Las Manitas represents the best of Austin. Let's not let King funky place, owned by the Perez sisters, not only serves up Marriott shove our "small little restaurant" around. ■ bodacious Mexican food. It is also a beloved center of political gossip and social activism. Former Observer editor Jim Hightower is a speaker and author. As a result, a robust "Save Las Manitas" campaign has swept To subscribe to his newsletter, the Hightower Lowdown, call the city, and both the mayor and the project developer have toll free 1-866-271-4900. For more information about Las rushed out to assure the outraged citizenry that, somehow, Manitas, see www.savelasmanitas.org.

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