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° JANUARY 26, 2007 Dialogue TheTexas Observer ROAD HOGS I have long suspected that this mad project is NOT in the best interests FEATURES rush to toll roads ("The Highwaymen," of this country! And I hope and pray December 15) was born not so much that he understands this!

LOW-HANGING FRUIT 8 from necessity, but from the same Joel E. Young Texas faces obvious problems that logic that thwarts universal health Weatherford the 80th Lege could easily fix. care and seeks to gut Medicare, public It probably won't. education, and Social Security: Any AIDING AND ABETTING by David Pasztor trust fund managed by government Your December 15 issue carried an is just so much "dead capital" in the article ("Craddickism") illustrating

FLEDGLINGS 10 eyes of an investment banker. how greatly Speaker Tom Craddick They're newly elected. They're still Your well-researched article made and his allies benefited from the quid chirpy. Which freshman lawmakers that very clear. I have forwarded it to pro quo with nursing-home compa- will take wing? my elected representatives and some nies and other medical providers as a of my activist friends, and I will not result of passing tort reform. DEPARTMENTS stop speaking out about this issue. You might have added that the courts Every Texas voter who opposes these of Texas, largely ruled by Republican

DIALOGUE 2 highway boondoggles needs to keep judges who have also benefited greatly this issue front and center with their from campaign contributions from

EDITORIAL 3 elected reps and on the editorial pages those sources, have extended the So Much for Accountability of our newspapers. reach of the bill to benefit the health- Articles like yours are invaluable in care industry even further. POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE 4 making that job easier for us. The courts have held that not only Julie Keller medical malpractice, but all forms of BAD BILLS 6 El Paso claims pressed against nursing homes

CAPITOL OFFENSE 12 and medical providers, come under The Price of Innocence The Trans Texas Corridor proposal is the rubric of tort reform legislation by Dave Mann an abomination! This plan has been and are subject to its onerous eviden- conceived by a group of miscreants tiary requirements and to its limita-

MOLLY IVINS 14 and scoundrels! These folks include tions on damages. Enough is Enough our illustrious Gov. Rick Perry; Ric Victims of rape by fellow patients Williamson and his entourage in the or by employees of the nursing home JIM HIGHTOWER 15 TTC; and do not forget our "elect- have been subjected to the terms of Surreal World ed" hero, Secretary of State Roger the act, even when the evidence shows Williams; AND our elected minions that the rapes probably resulted from ANDREW WHEAT 16 in the Texas Legislature who had not the negligent hiring practices or neg- Wall Street's Pound of Bush Flesh the presence of mind or matter or ligent supervision of the patients.

LAS AMERICAS 18 intelligence to oppose this idiocy! Everyone recognized upon passage Guarded Language Also, I would like to admonish our of the act that any negligent provision by Michael Erard president, George W. Bush, who has of health-care services would be sub- ostensibly given his blessing to this ject to its terms, but few anticipated project! Hopefully and with deep- BOOKS & CULTURE that the courts would consider that seated prayers, this information is even intentional assaults like rape untrue. I have supported President would be covered as well. POETRY 27 Bush throughout his campaign and Terry Weldon by Wanda Garner Cash shall continue to do so. However, this Austin

CORPS FAILURE 28 by Char Miller A BIT OFF BALANCE

AFTERWORD 30 You'll undoubtedly notice that this issue is lighter on arts and culture The 2nd Biggest Mesquite Tree in Texas than usual. The lawmakers are back in Austin, and they threaten to by Wade Williams make more laws, so our political coverage is amped up for this issue. We'll right the balance next time around. Cover photo by Jody Horton.

2 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007

6 EDITO 1AL So Much for Accountability

ven during the darkest diated the Republican leadership, par- tigation by the federal prosecutor was periods of the past few ticularly in the House, booting key making some Abramoff clients uncom- years, when cronyism, allies of Speaker Tom Craddick like fortable. Last year, prior to the elections, arrogance, and men- Kent Grusendorf and Gene Seaman the Justice Department insisted it was dacity had an almost out of office. Gov. Rick Perry won re- telling U.S. attorneys across the nation suffocating hold on election, but a majority of voters indi- to focus on public corruption. Now WashingtonE and Austin, we always felt cated they'd prefer someone else in the that the election is past, the Justice the pendulum would swing back in our job. And two issues—a push to build Department is undertaking an unprec- direction. We marveled at our leaders' 18 coal plants throughout the state and edented housecleaning, pushing out at overreach, shook our heads, and clucked the ambitious proposal to privatize least four U.S. attorneys, and maybe as that the day of reckoning must surely state highways—have sparked excep- many as seven. be just over the horizon. Indeed, the tional civic uprisings. Yet a challenge In Iraq, rather than listen to the

" accountability moment," as Dubya likes to Craddick's speakership from the American public, a bipartisan group of to call elections, came in 2006 with the forces of reform fizzled. Perry is still political elders, or even the generals in midterms. The American people spoke. governor. The coal plants and the ill- the field, the Bush administration has No to the Iraq war! No to corruption! conceived Trans-Texas Corridor con- decided to escalate the conflict. When It was a good year. Congress changed tinue to move at full throttle. The work Fox News' Chris Wallace pointed out hands, and suddenly some semblance for positive change in Texas has only to Vice President Dick Cheney that of balance returned to American gov- just begun. national exit polls showed 67 percent ernment. A potent symbol of corrup- In Washington, the level of corrup- of voters said the war was either very tion, Jack Abramoff, went to prison. We tion, of double-dealing and outright or extremely important to their vote, even witnessed the humiliation of our plunder cries out for stiff prison sen- and only 17 percent supported sending beloved Tom DeLay, who was hound- tences to be handed out like candy in more troops, the dark lord replied ed off the ballot and forced to all but canes. While Abramoff was a start, the blithely, "The polls change." deliver his seat to a Democrat whom he feds hustled him off to jail before the He continued, "... you cannot simply had previously vanquished. Our topsy- full scale of the scandal could truly be stick your finger into the wind and say, turvy system was finally righting itself exposed. Nonetheless, the former lob- gee, public opinion is against [the war], a bit. Or so it seemed. byist did point the way toward a solu- we better quit." Now, with the first month of 2007 tion for the Bush administration's cor- Cheney will not quit. Nor will Perry under our belt, it should be clear to ruption problem. In 2002, Abramoff or Craddick. Whatever power these everybody that it will not be so easy. allegedly helped convince the president people have, they will use. The pen- In Texas, the cause of reform clearly to remove the U.S. Attorney in Guam. It dulum will go only so far on its own made great strides in '06. Voters repu- appears that a public corruption inves- without a big collective push. ■

THE TEXAS OBSERVER I VOLUME 99, NO. 2 I A Journal of Free Voices Since 1954

Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger James K. Galbraith, Dagoberto The Texas Observer (ISSN 0040-4519/ paid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk Executive Editor Jake Bernstein Gilb, Steven G. Kellman, James USPS 541300), entire contents copy- rates on request. Microfilm available Editor Barbara Belejack McWilliams, Char Miller, righted ©2007, is published biweekly from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Managing Editor David Pasztor Debbie Nathan, Karen Olsson, except during January and August Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. when there is a 4 week break between Associate Editor Dave Mann John Ross, Andrew Wheat Indexes The Texas Observer is indexed Publisher Charlotte McCann issues (24 issues per year) by the Staff Photographers Texas Democracy Foundation, a 501(c)3 in Access: The Supplementary Index Associate Publisher Julia Austin to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for Circulation Manager Lara George Tucker Alan Pogue, Jana Birchum, non-profit foundation, 307 West 7th Steve Satterwhite Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone the years 1954 through 1981, The Texas Art Director/Webmaster Matt Omohundro Observer Index. Investigative Reporter Eileen Welsome (512) 477-0746, Toll-Free (800) 939-6620 E-mail [email protected] Poetry Editor Naomi Shihab Nye Contributing Artists Texas Democracy Foundation Board POSTMASTER Send address changes Copy Editors Rusty Todd, Laurie Baker Sam Hurt, Kevin Kreneck, Lou Dubose, Molly Ivins, D'Ann Johnson, World Wide Web DownHome page to: The Texas Observer, 307 West 7th Staff Writer Forrest Wilder Michael Krone, Gary Oliver, Jim Marston, Mary Nell Mathis, Gilberto www.texasobserver.org. Periodicals Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Blogger Matt Wright Doug Potter Ocanas, Bernard Rapoport, Geoffrey Postage paid at Austin, TX and at addi- Administrative Assistant Stephanie Holmes Books & the Culture is Rips, Sharron Rush, Kelly White, tional mailing offices. Cv{:Witi Editorial Interns Jun Wang, A.J. Bauer, Editorial Advisory Board Ronnie Dugger (Emeritus) funded in part by the City Dwitkot Kelly Sharp David Anderson, Chandler Davidson, Subscriptions One year $32, two years of Austin through the • Cultural Arts Division and Contributing Writers Dave Denison, Sissy Farenthold, In Memoriam $59, three years $84. Full-time stu- Lawrence Goodwyn, Jim Hightower, Bob Eckhardt, 1913-2001, dents $18 per year; add $13 per year by a grant from the Texas Nate Blakeslee, Gabriela Bocagrande, Commission on the Arts. Robert Bryce, Michael Erard, Kaye Northcott, Susan Reid Cliff Olofson, 1931-1995 for foreign subs. Back issues $3 pre-

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3 POLITIIAL INTELLIGENCE Unholy Rollers

PRAISE PERRY Gov. Rick Perry and according to a statement released prior he said. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst spent the eve- to the event by Austin-based watchdog In his inaugural speech the next ning before their inauguration with the group Texas Freedom Network. day, Perry referred to the prophet people who brung them to the dance: White confirmed that the Texas Isaiah, mentioned Saint Paul, reflected the religious right. Perry and Dewhurst Restoration Project was picking up on the Good Samaritan, and talked were among those invited to speak the tab for the pastors' meals and of forgiveness, redemption, grace, and at a "Pastor's Policy Briefing" at the hotel rooms, a bill likely to run into God. "There is nothing so powerful as Renaissance Austin Hotel. Sponsored the thousands of dollars. Rooms at the testimony of a changed life and a by a secretive organization called the the Arboretum's Renaissance Austin redeemed soul," he said. "Without for- Texas Restoration Project, the event Hotel, for example, were going for $349 giveness and compassion, there can be drew more than 700 pastors. (Some plus tax on the night of the shindig. no redemption. And where would sin- 1,500 had signed up, but roughly half Numerous pastors were spending the ners like me be if there weren't?" canceled because of bad weather, said night at that hotel, and others were Where indeed? Kelly Shackelford, president of the Free being bussed in from six hotels in the Market Foundation, a conservative inter- upscale Arboretum area. The pastors SOTTO VOCE SPEAKER PACS est group headquartered in Plano.) wore suits and ties. Their wives were The recent Texas House speaker election Sharing the stage with Perry and more flamboyantly dressed, carrying turned on procedural matters of if, how, Dewhurst were two Ohio politicians, small handbags and wearing long chif- and when its members' votes would be Kenneth Blackwell, the state's contro- fon skirts. The Rev. White declined to disclosed. This prompted speechifying versial outgoing secretary of state who say who was funding the Restoration over what kind of disclosure would best lost a bid to become governor in 2006, Project. "They're donors who believe honor the Alamo martyrs or hew clos- and former congressman Bob McEwen. the Christian point of view is an impor- est to scriptures in Genesis. Left unsaid Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee canceled tant part of the political dialogue and was that Texas' antiquated system for due to the icy weather. important for our country," he said. reporting speaker committee finances The Rev. Laurence White, a Houston Past supporters of the project have may blaspheme both Davy Crockett and minister who has a prophet's stern included Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, the Yahweh. demeanor, was on hand to give the wealthy East Texas chicken rancher, and As a result of recent reforms, candi- opening remarks. A pastor at Our San Antonio's James Leininger, the hos- dates for state office are required to Savior Lutheran Church, White often pital-bed magnate and school-voucher provide detailed disclosures of their compares the moral free fall in the zealot. campaign finances. Yet the special dis- United States to the behavior in Nazi Shackelford, contacted the day after closures made by candidates to be Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. White the event, said the speeches weren't speaker—one of the state's most power- was hurrying through the hotel lobby overly political. Dewhurst spoke about ful offices—are vastly inferior. Like most when an Observer reporter waylaid some of the measures he would like state politicians, speaker candidates him to ask if the event was open to the Legislature to take up this session, file disclosures with the Texas Ethics the press. He shot a long-suffering including a bill that would require every Commission in an electronic format glance at a colleague, then boomed out public school employee to submit to a that is easy to publish on the Internet. indignantly, "This is not a political or a criminal background check. Perry, the Indeed, the Ethics Commission posts public happening." sole gubernatorial candidate to speak these reports on its Web site—except The Texas Restoration Project is mod- at the six other project events in 2005, for speaker filings. The commission rel- eled on the Ohio Restoration Project, thanked the pastors for their support, egates those reports to paper files in which mobilized in 2004 to get con- emphasized the importance of stand- Austin that are difficult for out-of-town- servative pastors and their congre- ing up for what's right, and asked the ers to access. An Ethics Commission gations involved in the political pro- group to pray for him. Perry often asks attorney said state law requires the cess. Similar groups have sprung up people to pray for him when he talks to agency to post regular campaign data in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, religious organizations. on the Internet, but not those of speaker and Pennsylvania. "New groups like The governor has been a great friend committees. The agency lacks resourc- the restoration projects are focused on to conservative Christians, said the Rev. es to go beyond its legal mandates, the activating conservative evangelical pas- White. "Perry has been a steadfast sup- attorney said. tors as political campaign operatives," porter of pro-life and pro-family values," Yet the agency also appears to be

4 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 deferential to the speaker. Speaker Tom apparently has been spending funds it patron as speaker. Pitts gave $15,110 Craddick's daughter wrote commission received around the time of Craddick's to Craddick's Stars Over Texas in mid- General Counsel Natalia Ashley on July 2003 speaker election. It is not clear 2006. 5, 2005, saying, "I sent the Speaker's how much remains in this war chest. Pitts' contribution to his future rival ethics report on Friday but did not get The real power behind the speak- was three times larger than all the con- a reply from you. I don't know if you are er's throne, however, is another Christi tributions collectively received over the out of the office or did not receive it," Craddick-tied PAC called Stars Over past two years by the official speaker Christi Craddick wrote, "so I am sending Texas. It spent more than $1 million committees formed by Reps. Craddick; it again." The commission's top lawyer during the 2006 cycle supporting Pitts; James McCall, a Plano Republican; then wrote to the agency's disclosure Craddick's allies in the House. After and Senfronia Thompson, a Houston filing director, saying, "Here is Speaker Craddick himself, the largest legislative Democrat. His mutiny failed, Pitts now Craddick's report that was due July 1. donor to this PAC was Rep. Jim Pitts, appears to lack even the clout needed Christi says that she e-mailed it by the a Waxahachie Republican and the for- to secure a refund of this misguided deadline so please make that the date mer Craddick lieutenant who recently contribution. filed." Such accommodation suggests made a last-minute bid to oust his old —continued on page 26 that if the speaker wanted his filings on the Internet, the agency would take the modest steps required to put them there. Even if speaker filings were put on the Internet, they still would be infe- rior to ordinary state campaign disclo- sures. Whenever a speaker committee spends more than $10, it must dis- close the recipient and purpose of the expenditure—but not the amount spent. Early this year, for example, Craddick's 411' z*, zi speaker committee reported paying 41111111Mank a "travel" reimbursement to a com- pany in Austin called D Consulting, LLC. Craddick did not report the value, date, or destination of the trip. Moreover, what he did report obfuscated the fact that D Consulting actually is a KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, creates innovative television that inspires and California-based concern of big devel- educates not just in Austin, but throughout all of Texas. KLRU explores oper John Sardino. Sardino maintains The Biscuit kiru politics with Texas Monthly Talks; makes learning fun with tv and beyond airplanes to watch over his far-flung Brothers and Central Texas Gardener; and showcases live music with Look for these KLRU programs on your local PBS stations. klru.org projects—including those he has built Austin City Limits. in Central Texas with local partner Haythem Dawlett. Mega-developer Dawlett did not return a call from the Observer to explain why his company paid for travel for Speaker Craddick. Sulu Naga International Headquarters While speaker committees are required to report the amounts of the Come Visit us for LUNCH! In addition to our organic contributions that they receive, they coffee, pizzas, empanadas, pastries and pies, we do not report the employers or occu- now prepare made to order sandwiches, salads, pations of large donors—as other cam- paigns must. Speaker committees also ~ and even black bean gazpacho. are exempt from the usual obligation IU 1 to report the amount of unspent cash they have left on hand. This require- 3601 S. Congress off E. Alpine ment would make the reports more Penn Field • under the water tower transparent. Craddick's speaker com- (512)707-9637 www.rutamaya.net mittee—which has not reported any check our site for monthly calendar contributions in the last couple years—

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5 BAD BILLS

SA. Carrion Wayward Legislators

SEX AND THE PHARMACIST point at which the sperm and egg unite:' the new bill, adding that there are plenty House Bill 23 The warning details how the contracep- of other instances where warning signs Rep. Frank Corte Jr. (R-San Antonio) tive pill may either "prevent the egg are posted. "It's not unprecedented;' she Like cranes flying back to Port Aransas and sperm from uniting or prevent the says. "There are warning signs for drink- or bluebonnets blooming in spring, you implantation of your already fertilized ing alcohol, smoking tobacco, or sniffing can count on fresh pro-life bills from egg in your womb." paint." Rep. Frank Corte with each new session "I'm surprised it doesn't come with HB 23, however, would force pharma- of the Legislature. He's right on time a requirement for graphics, too;' says cists to warn women of a potential risk with this year's offering, House Bill 23, Sarah Wheat, public affairs director for to their consciences or their souls, not which, as it targets emergency contra- Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital their health. By prescribing the exact ception, would put words like "sperm?' Region. "I'm just not sure if the phar- words pharmacists should use with cus- ‘`womb?' and "huevo" on the walls of macy counter is an appropriate place for tomers, HB 23 goes even further than every pharmacy in Texas. Texans to get sex-ed lessons?' She adds Corte's 2005 "informed consent" bill The bill, a proposed addition to the that all pharmacy customers would be in putting contentious words in the state Health and Safety Code, marks a treated to the description of fertiliza- mouths of health care professionals. And return to the pharmacy for Corte. Two tion—and a particular opinion about while buying emergency contraception years ago he pushed to let pharma- when life begins—even if they're just is now a relatively quick, discreet process, cists refuse to fill abortion-related pre- picking up antibiotics or chewable kids' HB 23 would treat anyone waiting in a scriptions on moral grounds. Corte was vitamins. pharmacy line to a performance of the forced to withdraw his 2005 bill because Plan B, a concentrated form of the Plan B speech, including—just so you of language that confused emergency same hormones in regular birth control know—the possibility that "life begins contraception with abortion procedures. pills, was approved for over-the-coun- at fertilization?' But as Seay says, "It's just HB 23 would provide a warning to ter sale in August 2006 after a long information?' women seeking over-the-counter, emer- internal battle at the Food and Drug gency contraception like Plan B, the Administration. The approval makes it KEEP 'EM DOWN ON THE FARM "morning-after pill;' informing them that easier for women to get the drug within House Bill 141 the medication will, in all likelihood, the recommended window of 72 hours Rep. Jim Jackson (R-Dallas) keep them from becoming pregnant. after having unprotected sex. According Rep. Jim Jackson has identified a true One way the drug could do this is by to Wheat, HB 23 specifically targets Plan scourge among undocumented immi- preventing an already fertilized egg from B in response to the FDA move. This grants: kids who want to go to college. implanting in the womb—a possible time there's no specific mention of abor- He has filed a bill to ensure impossibly concern if you believe life begins at the tion in Corte's bill, and the contentious high tuition rates for those pesky, highly moment of fertilization. abortion pill RU-486 is not included as motivated immigrants who dare to set To help get out the message—if you're emergency contraception." their sights on something beyond bus- looking to get pregnant, this isn't the pill Corte policy adviser Kathi Seay char- sing your table or mowing your lawn. for you!—HB 23 requires pharmacists acterizes HB 23 as simply the latest in House Bill 141 is one of four house to read aloud a 68-word warning before the longtime House member's ongoing bills this session that would rescind a law selling the drug. To be sure it sinks in, charge to "keep women informed"—in passed in 2001 allowing immigrant chil- they must also include a written copy the tradition of Corte's 2005 "informed dren in Texas to pay the lower, in-state of the warning with the medication, consent" bill requiring itioctors to list tuition rates at public universities. and—because really, who reads those breast cancer among potential health "I don't think people who are here little labels on the pill bottles anyway?— risks connected to abortion. Opponents illegally should receive benefits," Jackson post a 2-foot-wide sign beside the cash say the breast cancer-abortion link was said. "If they're not here legally, they just register with the same message printed bad information based on outdated ain't legal." in English and Spanish. research, selectively included for dra- Gov. Rick Perry, who signed HB 1403, The warning, which is included in the matic effect—in much the same way HB the original legislation granting in-state text of Corte's bill, makes clear what's at 23 highlights one particular belief about tuition, has said he will oppose any stake by beginning, "If you believe that the beginning of life. n „ effort to repeal it. The bill was passed life begins at fertilization ..." and then "I can't see why anyone would be unanimously in the Senate and with one describes the fertilization process—"the opposed to information;' Seay says of dissenting vote in the House in 2001.

6 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 Now, to be eligible for in-state tuition about like I believe in anything [former undocumented students must have Comptroller] Carole Keeton Strayhorn 06server readers ore graduated from high school in Texas says," Jackson said. and lived in the state for three years, Jackson shouldn't worry. The inspired and they are required to sign an affida- undocumented immigrant who some- SMART vit promising to file an application for how manages to make it to college still permanent residence. According to the faces often-insurmountable challenges. PROGRESSIVE Texas Higher Education Coordinating Mirla, for example, could not get a driv- INVOLVED Board, in fall 2005 approximately 5,000 er's license or a bank account, and had foreign students were paying in-state to take a semester off for lack of funds. INFLUENTIAL tuition rates, less than half of 1 percent Now that she has graduated, Mirla can't of total enrollment. work here. GOOD LOOKING Rep. Rick Noriega, the Houston While advocates for undocumented Democrat who authored HB 1403, said college students try to preserve and the law began as a dropout prevention expand Texas law, a federal version has ($(9 are Observer oavertisersr effort. "Can you imagine ... us telling kids languished in Congress since 2003. The in high school that college is not attain- Development, Relief, and Education for able for financial purposes, or because of Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, would immigration status? What would that do allow many undocumented students who to the dropout rate when you take away attend high school in the U.S. to qualify Get noticed by Texas Observer a generation's hope?" he asked. for permanent residence, provided they folks all over the state and nation. Previously these students had to pay attend college, join the military, or work higher out-of-state tuition rates, largely in a federally funded community-service Let them know about your program. So far, the act hasn't been rein- bookstore, service, restaurant, barring them from attending college. non-profit organization, event, Mirla, who asked that her last name not troduced in the new Congress that began political candidate, shoe store, coffee be published because she is an undoc- work this month. ■ house, boutique, salon, yoga umented immigrant, recently gradu- studio, law practice, etc. ated from the University of Texas in Like swallows to Capistrano, like Austin. Before she knew about HB 1403, hummingbirds to nectar, Observer she wasn't planning to attend college, staffers are drawn every two years to despite being valedictorian of her high the Capitol. But we're more like vultures, school class. ready to feast on the rotting flesh of truly Ana Yatiez-Correa, executive director bad or absurd legislation. If you can direct of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, us to a bad bill, stupid bill, funny bill said the law makes economic sense or bill that's just plain unconstitutional, because these students become an asset e-mail us at [email protected]. rather than a burden on the state. After TheTexasObserver Texas adopted the law, 10 states passed Escape to the hills similar legislation. Great cabino on the beautiful Frio River Jackson doesn't buy the argument: ADVERTISE "How do you justify that with the claim Seven Bluff Cabins IN that the reason we have to have undocu- On River Road in Concan, TX mented immigrants is to do jobs that frioconcan.com THE OBSERVER! people here won't take, and then you • 1.800.360.5260 give them an education?" REASONABLE RATES • GREAT EXPOSURE Jackson said that performing jobs SPECIAL OFFER Call 512-477-0746 and ask for Julia Austin for Observer Americans won't do also doesn't justify or e-mail [email protected] the presence of undocumented immi- subscribers! grants. Stay 2 nights and A report released by the Texas get the 3rd night free. key, 56server reciaersr Comptroller last December conclud- Consider advertising your business ed that the approximately 1.5 million Good through Feb. 28 undocumented immigrants in Texas or non-profit in the Observer. contribute more to the economy in GOOD FOR YOU • GOOD FOR THE OBSERVER taxes and other revenue than the state spends on them. "I believe in that report

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7 FEATURE Low-hanging Fruit Texas faces obvious problems that the 80th Lege could easily fix. It probably won't.

BY DAVID PASZTOR

n the frigid day in Texas that Rick Perry was sworn in for the term that will make him our longest-serving governor, one in five Texas children did not have health insurance. By the best estimate available, Texas public school districts needed nearly $10 billion to0 repair or replace decaying buildings. Texas power plants, factories, and cars continued to pump out more greenhouse gases than any other state, or most countries, for that matter. David Dewhurst took his second oath as lieutenant gov- ernor, vowing to enact a death penalty for repeat sex offend- ers. At that moment, state prisons were already overflowing, including tens of thousands of mentally ill inmates who have received little in the way of treatment before or after landing in jail. In fact, the state of Texas is now trying to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that one of them—a diagnosed schizo- phrenic who represented himself at trial wearing a cowboy costume—is just sane enough to be executed. Tom Craddick won his third term as House speaker after fighting back an insurgent challenge to his leadership fueled in part by growing disgust over the undue influence of rich campaign contributors, whose largesse has been rewarded with limits on lawsuits and protections for homebuilders. The flow of money continues to course unchecked through Texas politics. While the strong have fared well under the leadership of these three men—and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate—the weak have not. State highways are being handed over to multinational corporations to run as profit- making toll roads, but there is not enough money to patch Tom Craddick photo by Jana Birchum schoolhouse roofs or help battered women hire lawyers when they need protective orders. Many poor Texans who qualify cal treatment in the world. If you're poor, well, good luck. for food stamps and other aid funded by the federal govern- It's widely accepted that people with health insurance lead ment still don't get help, because Texas can't or won't deliver healthier lives. Yet one in four Texans has no health cover- the federal dollars. age—by far the highest rate in the nation (the national aver- There is, in short, no lack of obvious, substantive problems age is 16 percent). More than 1.4 million Texas children (20 in Texas that could be fixed. percent) are uninsured, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, And for now there is little chance they will be. also worst in the nation. The following examples are by no means exhaustive. They'd Despite these dreadful numbers, Texas lawmakers have make good starting points if the state's leadership is truly shrunk the state's public-assistance programs in recent years. intent on accomplishing something worthwhile this legisla- Nearly 80,000 of Texas' poorest children have been kicked off tive session: While Texas froze over, hell probably won't. Medicaid since 2003. Another 180,000 kids have lost cover- age under the Children's Health Insurance Program since LIVE AND LET DIE September 2003. The drops in enrollment were due mostly to The health-care model Texas has created is harsh, yet simple: bureaucratic roadblocks cynically designed by the Legislature If you have money, you can access some of the best medi- to winnow poor Texans off Medicaid and CHIP. For example,

8 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 new rules forced families to re-enroll every six months instead go to public emergency rooms—the single most expensive of annually, imposed a 90-day waiting period before benefits place to receive care. That goes on the public tab. The govern- kick in, and tightened eligibility requirements. ment also pays a higher bill to incarcerate the mentally ill for For those with mental illnesses—which can be just as debil- long periods. itating as physical ones—the situation is no better. Families The Legislature could mitigate some of these problems with money can find good mental-health treatment. Those immediately. For instance, roughly 60 percent of Texas' who rely on the public system have trouble. Texas ranks 47th uninsured children (919,000) are eligible for some govern- in per capita spending on mental health care. State officials ment assistance, and could be enrolled in either Medicaid estimate that public mental-health clinics treat only one-third or CHIP immediately, according to the Center for Public of Texans with severe mental illness. That leaves hundreds Policy Priorities, an Austin think tank. To cover these kids, of thousands to fend for themselves; many end up in prison, the Legislature would have to increase funding for both pro- some even on death row. grams. Lawmakers also would have to undo the cuts from (The U.S. Supreme Court has just agreed to hear an appeal 2003—restore 12-month eligibility, for example—so more from condemned inmate Scott Panetti, who believes the families could easily enroll and remain in the programs. It devil is trying to kill him and that evil forces poisoned his also wouldn't hurt to expand Medicaid and CHIP coverage; mother's breast milk. Panetti was allowed to defend himself many of Texas' benefits—such as coverage for the elderly and at trial, and the question now is whether a man who has been disabled—satisfy only the bare minimums under federal law. hospitalized 14 times during his life for schizophrenia and Finally, lawmakers could end their obsession with privatiz- other mental problems is sane enough to understand why he ing the social safety net, particularly the ill-fated attempt to is being executed.) allow a private company—instead of state workers—to enroll The state's miserly approach to health-care spending may applicants in social programs. In its problem-plagued pilot save money in the short term, but cost more in the long run. program, Accenture, the company awarded the contract, has Children and adults without health insurance lead sickly lives made a mess of the process, including denying benefits to and are less productive economically. When they get sick, they some eligible applicants. Democrats and some Republicans tried to pass many of these measures last session and surely will try again in 2007. On the mental-health side, the legislative solution is rather straightforward: more money. A substantial increase in fund- ing for mental health care isn't just the humane thing to do, it makes economic sense. Those who receive treatment for mental illness might well stay out of prison and become pro- ductive workers in steady jobs. The Lege also could provide more support for jail diversion programs, which send non- violent offenders with mental illness to treatment programs instead of the state pen. Expanding the welfare state apparently doesn't jibe with the current ruling ideology in Texas, even though saving money—if not lives—would seem compatible with a conser- vative agenda.

SCHOOLHOUSE CROCK State District Judge John Dietz ruled the state's system of financing public schools unconstitutional in 2004, triggering two years of posturing and mudfights as lawmakers tried to figure out how to simultaneously lower property taxes and properly fund education. The remedy lawmakers finally adopted during a 2006 spe- cial session did little to directly address one of the problems Dietz found: Schools across Texas, especially in poorer dis- tricts, are literally falling down. Precise numbers are hard to come by because, as Dietz noted, the state doesn't do a very good job of tracking how much money school districts need to fix up their facilities. In 1996, the U.S. General Accounting Office estimated that about one-quarter of Texas schools had inadequate heating,

Gov. Rick Perry photo by Jody Horton —continued on page 20

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 9 FEATURE Fledglings They're newly elected. They're still chirpy. Which freshman lawmakers will take wing?

The 80th Texas Legislature may well turn out to be the session of the freshman. In the Senate, it didn't take more than a day for newcomer Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican and conservative radio firebrand, to make his presence known by taking the first of what will likely be many losing stands. Yet Patrick's antics obscured the arrival of several other Senate freshmen notable for their considerable experience in politics and the legislative process. Not least among them is Austin's own Kirk Watson. In the House, the 2006 elections narrowed the Republican advantage by five seats making it 81 to 69, ushering in a crop of new Democrats and Republicans who are by and large non-ideo- logical centrists. Their presence should have a moderating influ- ence on the chamber as a whole. Democrats will be looking to build on their electoral gains by forcing Republicans into tough votes. Meanwhile, Republicans will likely be looking to trip up the new representatives who hold seats in swing districts the GOP lost, trying to blunt the Democratic momentum.— Editors

WHO'S LISTENING?

Sen. Dan Patrick (R - Houston) The Texas Senate is a genteel place, a chamber that favors compromise over confrontation and cordiality over partisan- ship. Senators usually keep the nastiest fights behind closed doors. So the addition of Dan Patrick, the opinionated con- servative talk-radio host from Houston, is like adding a rabid pit bull to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. It might not be pretty, but you can't avert your eyes. all photos by Jana Birchum Patrick, 50, fancies himself a modern-day Jeff Smith, the Jimmy Stewart character from the 1939 Frank Capra film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He is the man who stands on Monroe. No other senator agreed with Patrick and the Senate conviction in an unprincipled town. Patrick won election—to approved the rules by a 30-1 vote. replace the retired Jon Lindsay—promising to secure the bor- "Irrespective of what the vote was—I campaigned on that der, lower property taxes, and end the Senate's two-third's rule issue, and more importantly, I believe in the issue of majority (the tradition that 21 of the 31 senators must support a bill rule," Patrick said two days after the vote. "I was not about to to bring it up for debate). Freshman senators are traditionally sit there silently and let the rules be voted in when I objected C( seen and not heard," as they say in the Capitol. Much like Mr. to them." Smith, though, Patrick vowed he wouldn't stay silent. The subtext in the Senate this session is the 2010 race for On his first day, he didn't disappoint. Not three hours governor. One possible contender for the spot is Lt. Gov. David after taking the oath of office, the brash new senator tried to Dewhurst, who presides over the upper chamber. Another change the upper chamber's rules. He gave an impassioned name frequently mentioned is Dan Patrick. Asked about the speech on the Senate floor against renewal of the two-thirds governorship, Patrick says, "My job is to be the best senator I rule. Democrats and moderate Republicans have used the rule can be." Then he added, in a possible warning to Dewhurst, "I in recent sessions to block some of the most controversial am more than happy to be ready to support a true conserva- elements of the right-wing agenda. Grassroots conservatives tive [in 2010]. The question is, will one emerge?" in the GOP want to replace the rule with a simple major- Patrick has considerable support from right-wing grass- ity vote. In his floor speech, he invoked Texas political icons roots activists in the GOP. He communicates to them through Bob Bullock and Allan Shivers, and Ronald Reagan, John his talk show—now heard in Houston and Dallas—which he F. Kennedy, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James plans to continue broadcasting Monday through Thursday

10 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 from the basement of a building across the street from the what happens long term;' he says. "I try to live my life with a Capitol. Dewhurst gave a clue on how he'll deal with Patrick short-term focus but a long-term vision." and his minions this session when he assigned committees. Indeed, his cancer fight informs much of what Watson says The lieutenant governor took the old proverb, "Idle hands are he hopes to accomplish in his new post. "The only reason I'm the devil's workshop," to heart. here is early, effective health care;' he says. "Otherwise I'd be He gave Patrick two of the most important and work- dead. One of the things I should be doing is making sure oth- intensive committees in the Senate: Education (including ers don't lose their opportunities just because they don't have the Subcommittee on Higher Education), and Health and access to health care. That's a key for me." Human Services. Patrick also is vice chair of International Though he has no bills in the hopper yet, Watson says Relations and Trade, and sits on Intergovernmental Relations they're coming, on health care, education, and transporta- and the Subcommittee on Flooding and Evacuations. With tion. A freshman can't be too presumptuous, but "I think those assignments, Patrick will likely be forced to choose soon it's appropriate, freshman or not, to ask 'Are we thinking big between Senate responsibilities such as attending hearings enough in Texas?'" and his radio program. Big's good, but politics is local, and Austin has its own tricky The upstart senator is not finished courting controversy. issues—development fights, protecting the Edwards Aquifer, He has filed an abortion-trigger ban that would outlaw abor- and of late, a growing restiveness over new toll roads that tion in Texas if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses Roe v. Wade. seem to be encircling the city. Watson knows the turf and its Another bill would impose a fee on money transfers to foreign traps. "I've been representing this area in one way or another countries—a plan Patrick hopes will limit the funds illegal for a decade;' he says. "I have found this to be a very thought- immigrants send back to Mexico. ful community." And like his hero Jeff Smith, he also seems eager to filibuster. And he's got his eye on the toll roads. "The policy has On the session's first day, Patrick's son and daughter gave him been a 'Don't ask, just tell' policy, and we've gotta fix that," a black hat that resembles the one Jimmy Stewart wore in Mr. he says.—DP Smith Goes to Washington. Says Patrick, "If my hat shows up on my desk, people will know it might be time for a filibus- —continued on page 22 tee—DM

ELEMENTARY, DEAR WATSON

Kirk Watson (D - Austin) If a wellspring of urgency or impatience bubbles deep within, his manner does not reveal it. Great expectations follow Kirk Watson simply because he is Kirk Watson, widely perceived as part of the Democratic Party's government-in-waiting, one of those who will vie for statewide office if and when the political winds shift. For now, he's Austin's first new state senator in more than two decades, settling into a junior member's office down a long, underground hallway beyond the Senate mail room. "I ...... couldn't be happier than to be where I am;' he says. "I've been wowim*m.- excited every day?' Watson coasted into office with no serious opposition, as if the city's political waters parted to deliver him his due after 22- year Senate veteran Gonzalo Barrientos decided to relinquish his stranglehold on District 14. Watson, the 48-year-old attorney and popular former mayor, had the good fortune to lead Austin during the height of the tech boom. He was part of the Democratic dream ticket in 2002, running for attorney general in the party's doomed effort to reclaim something, anything, from the Republicans. He's affable, reasonably attractive, and has a loquacious presence refined by courtroom arguments and countless ban- quet speeches. But he's not inclined to talk of higher office now. A cancer survivor—he beat testicular cancer more than 10 years ago--Watson insists he's looking no further than the ‘4<" ■•‘"iik, Senate floor. "One of the gifts of cancer is that I just don't get focused on Kirk Watson

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11 CAPITOL OF r; ENSE The Price of Innocence BY DAVE MANN

ameron Todd Willing- allegations of misconduct against crime has authority to make minor appro- ham professed his labs and correct poor forensic practices. priations. But the board hasn't fund- innocence to the very The bill that created the Forensic Science ed the commission. In addition, Perry end. Belted to a gur- Commission—sponsored by Sen. Juan could have directed minor administra- ney moments before "Chuy" Hinojosa, a McAllen Democrat, tive funding to the commissioners, but the potassium chloride and Rep. Joe Driver, a Republican from hasn't done so. pumped into his veins and stopped his Garland—passed the state House and Some commission supporters pri- heart,C Willingham told those gathered Senate unanimously. Supporters hoped vately speculate that Perry, who faced to witness his February 2004 execution, the commission would free innocent three opponents in November's elec- "The only statement I want to make is men already in jail and prevent similar tion, wasn't eager to preside over the that I'm an innocent man—convicted of injustices in the future. first government body in the nation to a crime I did not commit." Willingham "The public has to have trust in the confirm the modern execution of an had been sentenced to death for start- criminal justice system, that we're con- innocent man—perhaps even someone ing a 1991 house fire that killed his three victing the right people," says Hinojosa. executed during his time in office. States daughters in the North Texas town of "A lot of the labs have been very sloppy have freed numerous wrongly convicted Corsicana. From the beginning, he had and very negligent. The credibility of the people from death row in recent years, maintained that the fire was acciden- system is at stake." and several media and anti-death pen- tal. He was convicted mainly on the For nearly two years, however, Texas' alty groups have uncovered strong evi- testimony of a single arson investigator, highest elected officials have stalled the dence that Texas and other states have whose forensic evidence has since been commission's work. It took Gov. Rick executed the innocent. But no American debunked. In Willingham, the state of Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst governmental body has yet reached that Texas may well have executed an inno- more than 10 months to appoint their conclusion. The forensic commission cent man. seven commissioners. In the year since, may well become the first. His execution is exactly the kind the commission has done no work for Perry spokesman Ted Royer says the of case the Texas Forensic Science a simple reason: It has no money. Both governor supports the commission, but Commission is supposed to investigate. Perry and the legislative leadership have believes that the Legislature is the appro- The Legislature created the nine-mem- refused to provide the commission the priate entity to provide funding. "The ber commission—made up of prosecu- small amount of funding it needs for governor certainly wants to see the com- tors, defense attorneys, forensic science regular meetings and investigations. The mission get the funding it needs," Royer experts, and legal analysts—in 2005 to nine commissioners hope the current says. "That will very likely be addressed oversee and investigate the state's trou- Legislature will provide a budget. Nearly this legislative session:' bled forensic crime labs. In the past five two years after it was created and three Hinojosa says he doesn't think elec- years, the Houston police crime lab and years since Willingham's death, the com- tion politics stalled the commission so several Department of Public Safety labs mission—like the possibly innocent much as resistance within the criminal have produced well-documented fail- people still in jail—sits and waits. justice system. "When you bring change ures: tainted and lost evidence, poorly to a system, it makes people uncomfort- conducted tests, intentionally mislead- he commission missed out on able," he says. ing testimony. The New York City-based funding from the Legislature in Perhaps no criminal justice system has Innocence Project, a major proponent 2005 because the bill authoriz- produced more crime lab horror stories of the commission, has uncovered seven ing the commission passed too than that of Texas. Attorney Barry Sheck cases in which Texas sent innocent men late in the session to be included in the of the Innocence Project has called it a to prison because of faulty forensic evi- two-year state budget. The commis- "legacy of misconduct and neglect." dence. Some have been set free; others, sion did receive a bit of money from the "The need for this is obvious," Sheck like Willingham, are already dead. Given Texas Legislative Council to convene says. "To me, it's obvious that if you want the many crime lab controversies, Texas two meetings in fall 2006. With the to protect the innocent and apprehend legislators saw a need in 2005 for a Legislature out of session, the Legislative the guilty, few things in the criminal concept that few states have tried—an Budget Board—headed by Dewhurst justice system are more important than independent body that could investigate and House Speaker Tom Craddick- crime labs that produce reliable work.

12 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 And you can't find out if your crime attacked several more women, including Similarly, it was once thought that labs are producing reliable work unless an assault of his mother's housekeeper, a distinctive pattern of cracks in win- you have an oversight body that can who was five-months pregnant. dows—known as crazed glass—was evi- investigate and audit whenever serious The Houston lab has also experienced dence of arson. Investigators believed that negligence or misconduct arises, and problems with ballistics testing. Then the extreme heat of an arson fire caused we have documented cases where that's there are the more than 8,000 miss- crazed glass. The presence of crazed glass happened." ing pieces of forensic evidence from in Cameron Todd Willingham's house Take the case of Brandon Moon, con- the Houston lab found lying untest- was one of the key pieces of evidence victed of a 1987 rape in that led to his convic- El Paso. The victim had tion. Willingham testi- mistakenly identified fied that in December Moon as her attacker. 1991, he had taken a But the conclusive evi- nap and woke up to dence that sent Moon find the house on fire. to prison came from He escaped, but couldn't the DPS crime lab in save his daughters, the Lubbock. DNA testing oldest of whom was 2. was in its infancy at At Willingham's trial, a the time, and tests on deputy state fire marshal a semen sample recov- testified that he found ered from the crime several forensic indi- scene proved inconclu- cators of arson, chief sive. However, lab test- among them crazed glass. ing did show that the In fact, recent research semen had come from a has shown that crazed so-called non-secreter- glass also is caused by someone whose blood the temperature change type doesn't show up Judy Cavnar, holds a picture of her cousin, Cameron Todd Willingham. when cold water from in bodily fluids such as photo by Harry Cabluck, AP Photo fire hoses hits flame- semen and saliva. Since heated windows. Arson Moon is a non-secreter, a DPS lab ana- ed in cardboard boxes in a warehouse. experts now say that crazed glass can lyst assumed he must be the culprit. The Supporters believe the forensic commis- indeed occur in accidental fires. DPS lab overlooked the fact that the sion must examine many of these issues. Crazed glass and other dubious arson victim and her husband were also non- But perhaps no area of forensic science evidence also sent Ernest Ray Willis secreters, details that could have exoner- in Texas needs more urgent attention to death row for killing two women ated Moon, but never came to light in than arson cases. in a 1986 fire in West Texas. In late his trial. A 2002 DNA test showed Moon 2004, after 17 years in prison, Willis was wasn't the attacker, but not before he he science of detecting arson has released after arson experts refuted the spent 17 years in prison for a crime he undergone a recent revolution. evidence against him. Given the similar- didn't commit. As Sheck points out, the For years, arson investigations ity between the cases, Willis' exoneration DPS lab technician who botched the weren't particularly scientific. raises disturbing, unresolved questions Moon case worked at the Lubbock lab Fire investigators operated under a set about Willingham's death. To this day, for another four years. No one has exam- of assumptions, inherited knowledge Texas officials maintain that Willingham ined the many other cases he handled, from their predecessors, about how to was guilty. though Sheck requested last April that sift through the detritus of a burned So last year the Innocence Project the forensic commission do so if it ever building and determine an accidental commissioned the nation's five lead- gets funding. fire from one that was started intention- ing arson experts to examine the Willis Then there's George Rodriguez—a ally. In the last 15 years, a new genera- and Willingham cases. Their subsequent Houston man wrongly convicted of rape tion of arson experts has methodically report, released in May 2006, concludes because the Houston police crime lab debunked most of the old assumptions. that neither fire was the result of arson botched an analysis of semen and a hair For instance, investigators once thought and that Willingham was wrongful- found at the scene. Rodriguez spent 17 the presence of accelerants such as gaso- ly executed. Sheck sent a copy of the years in jail before DNA testing at the line caused arson fires to burn much report to the forensic commission with request of the Innocence Project freed hotter than accidental blazes. Recent a letter requesting an investigation into him. Meanwhile, the man who actually experiments have shown that accidental arson convictions in Texas. "Willis can- committed the rape remained free and fires can burn just as hot or hotter. -continued on page 26

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 13 COMMENTARY J BY MOLLY IVINS Enough is Enough

top it. Now The purpose of this old-fashioned news- paper crusade to stop We are the people who run the war is not to make George W. Bush look this country. We are the likeS the dumbest president ever. People have done dumber things. What were they thinking when they bought into deciders. And every single the Bay of Pigs fiasco? How dumb was the Suez war? How massively stupid day, every single one of us was the entire war in Vietnam? Even at that, the challenge with this misbegot- ten adventure is that WE simply cannot needs to step outside and let it continue. It is not a matter of whether we are take some action to help losing or will lose. We have lost. Gen. John P. Abizaid, until recently the senior commander in the Middle East, insists stop this war. that the answer to our problems there is not military. "You have to international- ize the problem. You have to attack it people in this country—we have voted have been so stupid? diplomatically, geostrategically," he says. overwhelmingly against this war at the As The Washington Post's review notes, His assessment is supported by Gen. polls and in the polls. (About 80 percent Chandrasekaran's book "methodically George W. Casey Jr., the senior American of the public is against escalation, and documents the baffling ineptitude that commander in Iraq, and the Joint Chiefs a recent Military Times poll shows only dominated U.S. attempts to influence of Staff, who recommend sending more 38 percent of active military want more Iraq's fiendish politics, rebuild the elec- forces only if there is a clear definition troops sent.) We know this is wrong. trical grid, privatize the economy, run of their goals. The people understand, the people have the oil industry, recruit expert staff or Bush's call for a "surge" also goes the right to make this decision, and the instill a modicum of normalcy to the against the Iraq Study Group. Talk is people have the obligation to make sure lives of Iraqis." that the White House has planned to do our will is implemented. We are the people who run this coun- anything but what the group suggested Congress must work for the people try. We are the deciders. And every after months of investigation based on in the resolution of this fiasco. Sen. single day, every single one of us needs much broader strategic implications. Ted Kennedy's proposal to control the to step outside and take some action About the only politician out there money and tighten oversight is a wel- to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think besides Bush calling for a surge is Sen. come first step. If Republicans want to of something to make the ridiculous John McCain. In a recent opinion continue to rubber-stamp this admin- look ridiculous. Make our troops know piece, he wrote: "The presence of addi- istration's idiotic "plans" and go against we're for them and trying to get them tional coalition forces would allow the the will of the people, they should be out of there. Hit the streets to protest Iraqi government to do what it cannot thrown out as soon as possible, to join Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go accomplish today on its own-impose their recently departed colleagues. to the peace march in Washington on its rule throughout the country ... By Anyone who wants to talk knowl- Jan. 27. We need people in the streets, surging troops and bringing security to edgeably about our Iraq misadventure banging pots and pans and demanding, Baghdad and other areas, we will give should pick up Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "Stop it, now!" ■ the Iraqis the best possible chance to Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside succeed." With all due respect to the Iraq's Green Zone. It's like reading a Molly Ivins is a nationally syndicated col- senator from Arizona, that ship has horror novel. You just want to put your umnist. Her most recent book with Lou long since sailed. face down and moan: How could we Dubose is Bushwhacked: Life in George A surge is not acceptable to the have let this happen? How could we W. Bush's America (Random House).

14 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 COMMENTARY I BY JIM HIGHTOWER Surreal World

pparently George W. ethnic, religious, and racial bigotry is We know what they did. The Congress thinks that surreal is a horrifically dangerous. that failed again and again to pass bills small nation in South If ignorance is bliss, Bush, Goode, and needed by the people went out of its America. Prager must be ecstatic. way to help its special friends, and did Surely, if the presi- so in secret. dent and his handlers SHOES AND OYSTERS In Decem- Ahad any grasp of the concept, they ber, during the frantic final hours of CORPORATE ROYALTY In Decem- would not have used the White House a "Do Nothing Congress" the majority ber, when children all across the coun- Indian Treaty Room to talk about the finally rose up and did something. try had dreams of sugarplums dancing anti-immigrant bill to erect a 700-mile Unfortunately, what it did was despi- in their heads, the barons of Wall Street long wall on our Mexican border. Of all cable. In the dark of that final night, the were having much richer dreams—and places, the Bushites chose a reminder Republican leadership snuck through all of theirs came true. that we Euro-Americans actually were 529 special-interest "tariff suspensions" The top dogs at the big banking hous- the first illegal immigrants, some 500 for assorted corporations. Tariffs were es gorged themselves on record payouts years ago. cut or eliminated on everything from that have taken greed to new heights And this is not even the most surreal imported shoes to boiled oysters. That of obscenity. The honcho of Goldman incident involving the volatile immigra- means you and I now have to make up Sachs, for example, grabbed a bonus tion issue. That honor would have to go for the loss of this tariff income with of $53 million—the highest ever taken. to the explosion of xenophobic nuttiness our taxes. Of course, it also means that And he's only been CEO since June, so that came from Republican Congress- products made abroad get a tax-free that's for half a year's work. critter Virgil Goode of Virginia. He advantage over products made here at Likewise, Morgan Stanley's chief went bonkers when Keith Ellison, the home. ended the year with a sweet bonus of first Muslim elected to Congress, said he This giveaway was done in a manner $41 million, while Lehman Brothers' top would use the Quran rather than a Bible that would make cat burglars blush. executive got only $11 million—but he'll for his ceremonial swearing-in. First, the products getting special treat- also receive $189 million in stock grants Goode seems to be blissfully unaware ment were not named in the bill. They over the next 10 years. Bear in mind that our Constitution protects the reli- were identified only by numerical codes that these lavish awards are in addition gious preferences of all people and that keyed to arcane tariff tables contained to their regular salaries, platinum-level Ellison, being Muslim, would rather in volumes the size of phone books. health-care packages, rich pension plans, naturally reach for the holy book of Second, the corporations that will and all sorts of kingly perks. his own faith. In his bliss, Goode not pocket tens-of-millions of dollars in tax Ah, yes, say the corporate royal- only denigrated Ellison for being ... well, savings also were not named, nor were ists, such extravagant wealth is richly Muslim ... He also warned maniacally the Congress-critters who snuck the deserved, for it's the reward for "taking that, "We will have many more Muslims suspensions into law. risks" in our system of corporate capital- in the United States if we do not adopt Third, congressional guidelines say ism. If it's "risk" that our economy is to strict immigration policiesf that no single tariff suspension is sup- celebrate, then why not hail drug king- For the record, Ellison is not an immi- posed to cost the public treasury more pins as pillars of our society? Besides, grant—he traces his American roots than $500,000 in revenue. Lawmakers these brokers are not risking their own back to 1742. and lobbyists (bless their larcenous money in their firms' speculative ven- Another surreal moment was pre- hearts) simply inserted multiple sus- tures, but the assets of shareholders and sented to us by Dennis Prager, a right- pensions aimed at a single corporation's clients. When their ventures turn sour, wing radio talk-show blatherer who product, giving millions of dollars in as often happens, they don't have to pay demanded that Ellison be barred from breaks to that importer. out of pocket. In fact, many are paid Congress if he did not conform to the But there's more! When the full bonuses anyway. ■ Christian standard and take his oath on Congress finally voted on the tariff sus- the Bible. This burst of religious intol- pensions, which had been larded into Jim Hightower is a speaker and author. erance came from a guy appointed by a massive bill, it had to vote on all of To order his books or schedule him for a Bush to (of all things) the board of the them as a block, without being able to speech, visit www.jimhightower.com. To U. S. Holocaust Memorial-a museum pick and choose and without knowing subscribe to his newsletter, the Hightower dedicated to reminding Americans that specifically what they were voting to do. Lowdown, call toll-free 1-866-271-4900.

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15

■ COMMENTARY I BY ANDREW WHEAT Wall Street's Pound of Bush Flesh

uch as Enron Corp. retary. "This issue is important to the One of the report's most innocu- once used the likes future of the American economy and ous-sounding findings may be the most of George W. Bush a priority for me," the press release telling. "Insufficiently coordinated state to deregulate ener- announcing the group's formation and federal enforcement laws and activ- gy markets, Wall quoted the secretary as saying. "I look ities have led to state authorities driving Street is leveraging forward to reviewing their findings matters that are more national in scope," chitsM amassed as the premier finan- and ideas." the report found. The state authority cier of Bush's re-election campaign to Soon after a Thanksgiving celebra- that inflicted the most misery on Wall try to roll back post-Enron market tion of what was turning out to be a Street was Eliot Spitzer, the New York reforms. Leading the charge is new bullish year on Wall Street, the com- attorney general whom New Yorkers Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. As mittee published an "Interim Report" elected governor in a landslide three head of New York-based investment that fleshed out Secretary Paulson's weeks before the report's publication. bank Goldman Sachs in 2004, Paulson agenda. Despite the stock market's Although Enron was a huge embar- served as an elite Bush fundraiser banner year, the report warned that rassment for Wall Street, the Street's along with George Herbert Walker U.S. capital markets are failing to cope real problems began when Spitzer IV—the presidential cousin then run- with unprecedented global competi- decided to go beyond Enron in pursu- ning Goldman's hedge fund division. tion. It blamed this dire situation on ing the industry's many conflicts. In Media reports about Paulson's nomi- the "excessive regulation" and "unwar- 2002, 10 top investment banks agreed nation last June made much of how ranted litigation" that followed "sev- to pay a record $1.4 billion to settle hard White House Chief of Staff Josh eral high-profile corporate scandals Spitzer's charges that they had won Bolten—Goldman's ex-director of legal and abuses." It identified Sarbox as a lucrative stock-underwriting contracts and government affairs—had to woo a major culprit. The Wall Street elite's by pressuring their analysts to publicly "reluctant" Paulson to the post. To land report fixated on provisions requiring hype stocks that they privately scorned. this fish, the Wall Street Journal report- corporate managers and auditors to Spitzer next ripped into conflicts at ed, Bolten "promised him more clout in formally vouch for a company's lawful- „ mutual funds and insurance compa- domestic and international economic ness and financial reports. The report nies—taking on some of the most pow- policy" than his predecessors wielded. said these honesty pledges are too erful financial wizards in the world. Clues to what Paulson intended costly and make auditing firms "virtu- Spitzer's jihad came at a pivotal to do with this influence soon sur- ally uninsurable." Alluding to Enron's moment. The aftershocks of Enron's faced. In a Columbia University speech late auditing firm Arthur Andersen 2001 implosion temporarily decimated last August, the new cabinet mem- LLP, the report groused that "improper the Houston-based energy industry that ber aired his view that parts of a key criminalization of entire companies did so much to bankroll Bush's first post-Enron reform should be repealed. has sometimes forced them out of busi- presidential race. Bush moneymen who When Congress passed the so-called ness, eliminating thousands of inno- had foundered in Houston swamps by Sarbanes-Oxley, or "Sarbox," reform in cent employees' jobs." 2004 included Enron's Ken Lay, Dynegy 2002 as its response to scandals. involv- The report neglected to mention that Inc.'s Chuck Watson, Reliant Energy ing Enron, WorldCom Inc., and Tyco the number of companies and jobs that Inc.'s Steve Letbetter, El Paso Corp.'s International Ltd., just three members prosecutors have destroyed is negli- William Wise, and Arthur Andersen's opposed it. The nays included "Dr. No," gible when compared with the wreck- Stephen Goddard. To eke out a second lonely Lone Star Rep. Ron Paul. age inflicted by corporate fraud. Indeed, term, Bush needed another flush-yet- The month after Paulson advocated much of the report is imbued with a needy industry to fill his war chest. As eviscerating some Sarbox reforms, an narcotic nostalgia for the go-go Enron the Observer reported three years ago elite group of corporate and finan- days, when corporate fraud basked in ("Bush's Bounty Hunters," February 13, cial leaders announced it was forming regulatory indulgence. At that time 2004), financial executives answered the Committee on Capital Markets investor class-action lawsuits were one this call. While the New York-based Regulation to recommend ways to of the only checks on corporate fraud. finance industry has keen interests improve U.S. capital markets. What set Yet the report also concludes that inves- in such perennial Bush issues as tax this newborn group apart was that it tor class actions must be sharply cur- cuts and privatizing Social Security, came into the world with the explicit tailed to save America's endangered it had provided limited financial aid blessing of a sitting U.S. Treasury sec- capital markets. for Bush's first White House run. By

16 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 the end of the first term, the patriotic the former head of Bush's Council of ing the Enron playbook. Apparently fallout from the September 11 terror- Economic Advisers who co-chaired the Arthur Andersen, Enron, and Ken Lay ist attacks on Manhattan and Spitzer's panel producing this report, pointedly did not die in vain. Their legacy thrives dogged pursuit of white-collar crime told reporters that federal regulators among the dealmakers on Wall Street changed Wall Street's political calculus. could implement many of the report's and Pennsylvania Avenue. Meanwhile, One of Spitzer's bitterest enemies prescriptions without the approval of Republicans eyeing the 2008 presiden- is elite Bush fundraiser Maurice Congress's new Democratic majority. tial race—including Rudolph Giuliani, "Hank" Greenberg, who was ousted But it might not be that easy. John McCain and Mitt Romney— as head of New York-based insurance Notwithstanding the expand- already are scrambling to commandeer giant American International Group ed authority that the White House the elite Bush fundraisers for their own Inc. while battling Spitzer-induced pledged to Treasury Secretary Paulson, campaigns. ■ fraud charges in 2005. Soon after the rollback of post-Enron reforms the Interim Report's publication, the is likely to be a tough sell for the Award-winning Observer columnist media revealed that the report had finance industry in the immediate Andrew Wheat is research director of been financed with $500,000 from the future. The new Democratic leaders Texans for Public Justice. Starr Foundation—a private founda- of congressional finance committees tion chaired by Greenberg. Spitzer stuck have expressed views ranging from Greenberg's family on the hot seat in caution to scorn about such a rollback. 2004 when he accused insurance broker Moreover, Bush's current Securities and Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc.—headed Exchange Commission chief, former by one of Greenberg's sons—of taking GOP lawmaker Chris Cox, repeatedly undisclosed kickbacks from insurers to has defended the very Sarbox provi- which it awarded corporate insurance sions that Paulson and his cronies want contracts. Insurers admitting to such repealed. Whatever the outcome, it is bid-rigging with Marsh & McLennan remarkable that Wall Street has sprung included AIG and ACE Ltd.—an insur- from the just-cremated ashes of Ken er headed by yet another Greenberg Lay to demand a rollback of the com- c4tioas son. The Greenberg money trail sug- mon-sense regulatory reforms that are Austin's Largest Selection of supposed to prevent "another Enron." International Folk Art, gests that the Interim Report's agenda Silver jewelry and Textiles may not have been solely concerned Such a demand would be laughable but for the extraordinary clout that the -1"" E SO RC> S with saving U.S. capital markets from TRADING GOMPANYe impending doom. Another of its aims Street has cultivated within the White FOLK ART & OTHER TREASURES FROM AROUND THE WORLD appears to be combating Spitzer and House. To a remarkable extent, this .1 209 CONGRESS AVE•AUSTIN 512/479-8377 OPEN DAILY 10 - 6 www.tesoros.corntal those who would follow his lead. industry fostered this clout by follow- 411 Early in the 2004 re-election cam- paign, Bush's then-Securities and Exchange Commission Chair William Donaldson endorsed an industry- backed bill to centralize state securities powers into his hands. But the tim- ing was bad for such a scheme, with memories of corporate abuses fresh and Spitzer unearthing one industry conflict after another. By the 2006 mid- term elections, the market value of the financial industry's heavy invest- ment in Bush was plummeting with his approval ratings and the "thumping" that voters gave Republicans at the polls. Three weeks later, Wall Street's elite made its doomsday case that key post-Enron reforms must be revoked to save American markets—a theme that Paulson had struck again days earlier in a speech to the Economic Club of New York. R. Glenn Hubbard,

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 17 LAS AMERICAS Guarded Language BY MICHAEL ERARD

t's a couple of days after Mel key; it's something like maax (pro- a popping sound. Because no Yucatec Gibson's Mayan fantasy nounced "maash"). I ask the word for Maya word has a dominant stress on any Apocalypto opened in the United "howler monkey," and he says something syllable, speakers have a fluid, singsongy, States, and my wife and I are else. Which is when I encounter the first swishing quality—it's attractive sound- following a young Mayan man, of several difficulties in my adventure ing to my ears, a language you want to Agosto, through the Yucatan in Maya: I didn't bring a notebook, and hear more of, not less. jungle.I A tour guide and biologist, he's I have a memory like a sieve. Ten feet Culturally, Maya speakers tend not to showing us a group of spider monkeys down the path I've forgotten the word go for big, empty promises, Bevington that live on the Punta Laguna preserve for "howler monkey." And if I did have explains, unlike Mexicans or Americans run by his village. It's late afternoon, a notebook, now's not the time to whip do, so if you want to learn Maya, it's and while rain clouds gather, Agosto it out, as wet limestone ridges and tree not enough to say, "I'm really inter- offers to show us around so the other roots block the path we take with our ested in the language." You have to show guides can go home. As we walk down eyes to the trees, hoping to see a mon- people that you're not just gawking. the slippery paths, he tells us about the key chuckle across the sky through the "Remember," Bevington writes, "that place in a Spanish that's remarkably easy branches. from the native perspective you are an to understand, probably because, as for A lot of the Apocalypto press describes odd thing that dropped from the sky us, it's his second language; his first lan- Yucatec Maya as an "ancient" language, into the middle of their well-ordered guage is Yucatec Maya, the language which isn't accurate. Though it's a and busy world. You are disruptive and that's notoriously used for what little descendant of the Classic Mayan spo- confusing because people of your ilk dialogue there is in Gibson's bloody ken by the inhabitants of the empires are expected to be remote and generally confection. whose ruins we admire, it's a very con- disdainful of their world." Yucatec Maya (or simply "Maya" if temporary language, beset by all the Even if we were planning to return to you're in the Yucatan) is spoken by a problems faced by indigenous languag- Punta Laguna, it turns out that we need million or so people on the peninsula, es in Mexico and elsewhere in the world: much more experience in how invested in Belize, and in northern Guatemala. Young people opt to speak the domi- a person is in his or her indigenousness, As we travel, we notice it everywhere: nant language; the government doesn't and what situations will call it forth. in the markets, the hotels, even written support indigenous-language educa- Bevington warns against trying to speak on the plaques at Mayan ruins along tion; the indigenous language carries a Maya with hotel help at tourist resorts, with Spanish and English. (In other stigma. This is the next set of obstacles and "anyone who sees himself or herself parts of Mexico, the signs appear in I encounter in my Mayan learning plan: as official or important or sophisticated" Tseltal or Nahuatl, other local indig- It's not a language that native Mayan should always be addressed in Spanish. enous languages.) Because we're travel- speakers seem to be happy to have out- Because Agosto also speaks English and ing for nearly a month, I figure wouldn't siders speaking. Italian, and works for an Italian prima- it be cool to learn some words of Maya, At one museum bookstore, I found tologist, we assumed we were dealing to be able to bust it out while buying Maya For Travelers and Students, a with someone Western and metropoli- fruit or asking directions, not out of remarkable book published in 1995 by tan. Someone like us. A person, that necessity—we can do everything we the University of Texas Press and writ- is, who understands that pimping out need in Spanish—but because of all the ten by linguist Gary Bevington. When one's tourism with some words from things one encounters as a traveler, lan- he describes how to learn Maya—not the language poses no threat. guage leads to some pure, real connec- in classrooms, but in the field, where But Punta Laguna didn't make that so tions. Buying something? In my mind, everyone's a teacher and no one will cut easy. It's also an "alternatour" destina- handing over currency always reinforces you slack—he knows what he's talking tion for ecotourists from Tulum and who's a tourist and who's not, who has about. He set out over multiple sum- Cancun, who are attracted by monkeys, money and who doesn't. Simple greet- mers (many of them in a camper) to descriptions of ruins (indeed, there's ings and politenesses? That's real, but learn Yucatec Maya. The book is a lucid a small temple on the preserve), and anyone can do it. Kissing? Out of the guide to the language itself, its grammar the chance to see and meet real, live question—this is my honeymoon. and its sounds, which include some Mayas in their houses. One feature of I ask Agosto the Maya word for mon- interesting consonants pronounced with the tour is talking to a Mayan shaman

18 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 in the jungle who will, under the sacred We thought we'd been having a genu- under a darkened palapa that served as ceiba tree, demonstrate traditional ritu- ine interaction with him. But the dark the lobby of the hotel, the clerk, a young als. Unlike the ecotourists, we camped waters of the tourist sphere, in which the man named Jesus, asks me if I speak in the preserve. Early the next morning, real and authentic are performed and Spanish. Agosto came to wake us so we could sold, lay closer than we thought. People Yes, I say, then joke: "Do you?" see the monkeys moving. "Sort of;' he says. "I speak As soon as we popped our more Maya." heads from the tent, we saw I perk up—this is my two male howler monkeys chance. "How do you say swing on branches over the `thank you' in Maya?" road. He promised more He whirls around. "Who spider monkeys, so we fol- are you? Where are you lowed him on another trek from? Why do you want through the jungle, and to know?" under the ceiba tree we I'm from Texas, I say, bumped into the shaman, a and I study languages, and man in his 50s with a deep- we're traveling in Mexico ly creased face, sitting near for a month, so I've been a fire. He also turned out to picking up some Maya be Agosto's father. Agosto words. He explains that his introduced us and pointed grandmother taught him out the altar, and we talked that he should guard his about the sack of copal, the language, because it was aromatic tree resin, that he a secret. Then he tells a burns for ecotourists. story about his uncle, a After we walked away, farmer, who had found realizing that we'd just a Maya ceramic that he seen a sacred aspect of had to hide: If the govern- Maya life tricked out for ment knew he possessed it, tourists, I should have just they'd take it away. said, in Spanish or English, I'm not a missionary, I thanks for introducing us say, and I'm not looking to your father and showing to buy artifacts, either. I'm us the altar and the ceiba just interested in the lan- tree, we're honored by that. guage. After he's stated his Instead, wanting to com- position and I've stated pensate for having seen a mine, he says he thinks sacred aspect of Maya life, image: iStock Photo there are powerful intel- I said in Spanish to Agosto, ligences on the planet that "I'd like you to teach me how to say in Punta Laguna charge admission to we don't know anything about, and that in Maya, 'I'm pleased to meet you:" their houses, so why not to the language, he believes he is a holy man. He's a little (Because I should be prepared to meet a too? Or was the language where they crazy, but the air seems to clear as far as shaman in the jungle, right?) drew the line? Agosto became chilly Yucatec Maya is concerned, and a few Agosto stopped, turned to me, and and left us behind to look for monkeys words dribble out of him. He's sitting quickly rattled off a long string of words, on his own. with a stray puppy on his lap and offers what sounded like 20 or 30 syllables. I We talked about Agosto for days, puz- that the word for "dog" is peek'. lamely repeated a few syllables, left in zling over what we'd encountered, even "Peek'," I say. Where's my notebook? It his verbal dust. He rattled off the string once we had reached Tulum, a Caribbean doesn't matter. Somehow, I think that again, just as quickly, then gave the coastal city, to spend some time on the one will stick. Spanish translation. I shrugged. There beach. I was going to take a few days "Yes, peek'," he replies. was no following what he'd just said, off from asking about Maya; once we Now, I think to myself, we're getting and he wasn't repeating. It occurred to got back on the road, I'd resume. I still somewhere. ■ me he might have been annoyed: It was listened, and thought I heard someone 7 a.m., he's a biologist, not a language say something in Maya that could have Observer contributing writer Michael teacher, and the question is ill-timed, a been "thank you," but I wasn't sure. Erard lives in Austin and blogs at www. distraction. I was still confused, though. Later that night, in a group conversation michaelerard. corn.

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19 —Lege, continued from page 9 according to Environmental Defense, drawn plenty of criticism, but with the ventilation, or air conditioning. a public interest group. Frighteningly help of state legislators and a fleet of A 1998 state Comptroller's report, enough, Texas already leads the nation Madison Avenue-styled public relations based on a survey of 614 districts, pegged in greenhouse emissions. firms, highway officials so far have suc- the cost of repairing Texas schools at Meanwhile, state government's role ceeded in steamrolling the opposition. about $9.1 billion. In 2000, the National has been reduced to approving or deny- The current leadership authored the Education Association estimated the ing air and water permits through the plan and has shown little willingness to figure at more like $9.5 billion. industry-friendly Texas Commission on back away. Districts with the least property tax Environmental Quality. Critics contend New highway proposals are on the revenue faced the worst problems. In that TCEQ has failed to study or con- drawing board, and portions of State El Paso's Ysleta district, for instance, sider the cumulative impacts of the coal Highway 130, which will likely be the 58 percent of the school facilities were plants, or require power generators to first leg of what's called the Trans- "markedly unsatisfactory," Dietz's rul- use the best available pollution-control Texas Corridor 35, are already open. ing noted. Problems included major technology. Perry, Round Rock's Republican state structural flaws, pest and rodent infes- Momentum is growing in the Rep. Mike Krusee, and Ric Williamson, tations, leaky roofs, and problematic Legislature for a resolution calling on chairman of the Texas Transportation wiring. Since it will require money to the TCEQ to institute a moratorium Commission, are the three officials pri- remedy these problems, don't count on on building seven of the proposed coal marily responsible for pushing this new the Texas Legislature to do much this plants. A "Clean Air Caucus" is spring- world order. session. ing to life, comprised mostly of urban In the coming weeks, the Texas and suburban lawmakers representing Department of Transportation—an COAL HARD FACTS areas such as Houston and Dallas-Fort agency with annual revenues greater Never have the dire consequences of Worth, which are under federal pressure than the entire income of some states— global warming been as widely grasped to clean the air, and cities like Austin or will be back at the Legislature trying as they are today. Much of Europe is Waco, which are flirting with becoming to widen its powers. It will also be ask- moving to control carbon emissions. federal "non-attainment" areas. ing for millions to fund a new entity Even Republican California Gov. Arnold What influence these opponents of called the Texas Rail Relocation and Schwarzenegger has joined the fray. the plants will have with state leaders Improvement Fund, which basically will Drought, heat waves, rising seas, and remains to be seen. They might have help two of the largest rail carriers monster hurricanes are but a few of the some luck in the relatively nonthreaten- in Texas—Burlington Northern Santa weather abnormalities that torment the ing area of energy efficiency. Calls for Fe Corp. and Union Pacific Corp.— planet and its inhabitants. Meanwhile, some form of re-regulation of electric- upgrade their rail lines and cash in on here in Texas we are poised to license 18 ity will perhaps fare less well. In the the staggering growth in freight trans- new coal-fired power plants that prom- end, this battle will more than likely portation projected for the next 10 years ise to pump out greenhouse gasses for be decided in the courts instead of the or so. decades to come. Lege. TXDOT wants to lift the cap on the Call it the beauty of a free market. 50- to 70-year contracts so it can nego- When the Legislature deregulated the STREETS OF GOLD tiate more contracts lasting for as long electricity industry in the 1990s, law- Since 2001, a clique of powerful Texas as 100 years with multinationals from makers of both parties ballyhooed the officials and their friends in the business Spain, Australia, and Sweden. TXDOT notion of letting the market, rather than community have been laying the legal also wants to amend state laws so it can government, decide what type of power and legislative groundwork to build perform its own environmental reviews plants should be built to feed the state's a network of superhighways and toll and approvals. It might seem like an insatiable appetite for energy. roads. One of the most ambitious road- obvious conflict of interest for a depart- So electric companies now want to building plans in the world, the for-pay ment whose main function is to bull- build plants that use the cheapest fuel highways will suck up thousands of doze and pave, but TXDOT says it could and generate the highest profits. Wind, acres of farmland, induce development, use the latitude to build projects faster, solar, and natural gas didn't make the and do little to reduce congestion along thereby reducing congestion, improving cut. Coal won. Plans are on track to the state's most glutted highways, most air quality, and enhancing safety. build 18 more coal-fired plants as quick- notably Interstate 35. Though deals are being drawn up, ly as possible, and they won't even have In the process, thousands of miles contracts signed, and concrete poured, the latest antipollution technology. The of state roads that have already been there's still time to rethink the toll roads plants are expected to spew more than paid for by motorists through gasoline if legislators decide to enact a morato- 78 million tons of carbon dioxide a year taxes will be turned over to multina- rium and demand an open and honest into the atmosphere, the equivalent of tional firms that will collect tolls for debate with the public about how to 14 million new cars worth of pollution, the next 50 years or so. The deals have address transportation gridlock. Then

20 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 photo by Jody Horton voters could be allowed to decide by tees, according to campaign watchdog this indictment aren't equipped to do what road they prefer to travel. That, Texans for Public Justice. the job [of keeping corporate money as the poet says, may make all the dif- A number of simple steps could out of elections]:' Unless the law is ference. instantly diminish the power of money strengthened to strictly prohibit the use over sound public policy in Texas. The of corporate money for electioneering, THE BEST LEADERSHIP first would be an aggregate limit on business interests like TAB will once MONEY CAN BUY individual contributions. Texas is one of again use undisclosed corporate money A good argument can be made that the few states that have no limits on the to smear candidates with whom they Texas' inability to deal with its pressing size of campaign contributions, allowing disagree. problems stems from the ironclad grip a mega-donors like Perry and Leininger to Finally, more legislation would few contributors and lobbyists hold over swamp an election with an endless flow probably not be necessary if Texas the state's policy agenda. The influence of cash. During the 2004 election cycle, had a functioning Ethics Commission. of their money drives the privatization 87 individuals or couples donated more Unfortunately, to call the current com- debate and is felt in most every policy than $100,000 each to state candidates mission dysfunctional and ineffectual area, from education to transportation and committees. This accounted for 10 is charitable. It is a paper tiger, under- and electricity to social services. In one percent of all political donations. TPJ funded and, worse, loathe to enforce small example, most Texans, including is part of a campaign-reform coalition the law or improve upon it through its most legislators, are opposed to school that has suggested a modest contribu- rule-making authority. At a minimum, vouchers. The fear is that they will take tion cap of $100,000 per election cycle. legislators should create a separate law- money away from already underfunded While legislation has been filed along enforcement division for the commis- public schools. Yet in 2005, Speaker these lines, with the current leadership sion. They should also provide for a Craddick scheduled a vote on a voucher it's not likely to prosper. budget based on a funding formula that bill. Might this have had something to In June 2006, state District Judge is independent of the Legislature. Finally, do with the fact that the state's biggest Mike Lynch tossed out a felony indict- the eight-member commission should voucher proponent, hospital-bed mag- ment against the Texas Association of be abolished and replaced with one nate James Leininger, is also one of the Business. Lynch ruled that TAB had accountable executive director. As with GOP's biggest political donors? Most not expressly advocated the election most of what Texas desperately needs recently, in the 2005 - 2006 election cycle, or defeat of candidates when it spent fixed, the state's leaders won't likely give Leininger gave more than $5 million to $1.9 million in secret corporate money the keys to the henhouse back to the Texas candidates. He's not the only one. on "issue" ads in the 2002 election cycle. public this session without a fight. ■ Republican home builder Bob Perry— Lynch wrote in his order that most the biggest political donor in the state anon-technical, common-sense people" Additional writing and reporting by Dave and nation—gave $6.7 million to Texas would see the ads as clearly violating Mann, Eileen Welsome, Forrest Wilder, candidates and political action commit- the law, but that "these statutes and and lake Bernstein.

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 21 —Freshman, continued from page 11 Cohen says. "I have to be able to make says. With her husband deceased and logical arguments for the positions I her children all grown, Cohen points BRAINY MODERATE take." out, she's ripe for the challenge. She Ellen Cohen (D-Houston) Campaign consultants describe the describes even the bruising battle for One gets the feeling from talking to 66-year-old Cohen as a dream candi- speaker on her first outing as a legisla- Democrat Rep. Ellen Cohen that she date. Not only is she highly intelligent tor as a satisfying, full day of work and will be tough for Republicans to dis- and energetic (Cohen estimates that she a learning experience. In her advocacy lodge. Cohen beat two-term incumbent knocked on 2,300 doors in a campaign on issues like domestic violence and her Martha Wong in a race that is held that visited 12,000 to 14,000 homes), service on the boards of organizations, up as an object lesson for what hap- she is also self-disciplined. Remarkably, she says she learned that "just because pens to those who follow party lead- Cohen's campaign didn't have a finance people don't agree doesn't make them ership instead of constituents. Wong director. Instead, Cohen sat down every evil." She is eager to work and relent- voted against increasing teacher salaries, day by herself to make phone solici- lessly upbeat. against curbs on air pollution, and from tations, which netted more than half During an interview in her still large- her perch on the State Affairs Committee, a million dollars. As the CEO of the ly unfurnished basement office in the for a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Houston Area Women's Center, she Capitol, Cohen insists she didn't run Wong took those votes while represent- manages a staff of 125. She will try to against anything as much as for main- ing District 134, the most highly edu- juggle that job with her new responsi- taining and improving what's already cated district in the state (66.6 percent bilities as a state rep. there. "We need to keep our institutions of adults 25 years or older have at least The question is, how will an accom- strong;' she says. a bachelor's degree, compared with 23.2 plished leader like Cohen do in a body She wants more investment in percent statewide). The district also has where she is just one among 150? She research and development for the med- a sizable gay and lesbian population. will, after all, be a mere freshman in the ical center in her district. This includes While leaning Republican, the 134th is minority party in an institution where embracing stem-cell research. She also more fact-based than ideological. So is everybody is constantly jockeying for calls for higher pay for teachers, small- its new representative. partisan advantage. er classroom sizes, and lower college "The district is verbal and smart;' "Being one of 150 is just fine," she tuition.

Ellen Cohen

22 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 In the past two legislative ses- made a name for herself in state poli- Pitts (R-Waxahachie) for the speaker- sions, the fringe became mainstream tics last spring. She engineered perhaps ship. Patrick defended her vote by con- in the Texas House. And as radical the biggest upset of the 2006 election tending that she was honoring a pledge Republicans muscled through their cycle—the Republican primary defeat to Craddick made on November 8. "I agenda, Democrats reacted, often stri- of Kent Grusendorf, the 19-year House intended to keep my word unless some dently. Wong was carried away by this veteran and powerful chairman of the previous unknown information came tide. How Cohen, who represents a new House Public Education Committee. to light ... some major scandal I didn't generation of Democratic moderates, Grusendorf had long pushed for know about," she said. resists its pull will be interesting to a public school voucher program in A strong signal on whether Craddick watch.—JB Texas, and for further reliance on high- will reciprocate with support for Patrick stakes testing and teacher incentive pay. will be revealed when the speaker names SCHOOL SMARTS Public education advocates and Parent committees. Will Craddick make use Diane Patrick (R-Arlington) Teacher Association members flocked of Patrick's expertise by placing her on Rarely does a freshman lawmaker to Patrick's banner (see "Wrath of the the education committee even though enter the Legislature already associated Soccer Moms," March 24, 2006). They it might displease stalwart campaign with a signature issue as Rep. Diane had come to view Grusendorf as a sym- contributors like San Antonio voucher Patrick is linked with public education. bol of the House leadership's perceived proponent James Leininger? After all, The Arlington Republican is a former hostility toward public schools. Patrick has pledged to work toward elementary school teacher, and until Patrick's ouster of Grusendorf was improving public education, not to dis- recently was a professor at the University another setback for House Speaker mantle it. She is a reliable vote against of Texas-Arlington in the College of Tom Craddick, a Midland Republican. any voucher program that takes money Education (she left her position to join Many Democrats crossed over to vote from public schools. the Lege). Patrick, 60, has served on for Patrick in the Republican primary Patrick has an ambitious legislative the Arlington School Board for 11 years, as a way to oppose Craddick and the wish list. She wants to reduce property including a term as president, and also House leadership. Yet in her first major taxes for elderly homeowners and to did a four-year stint on the state Board decision in the Lege, Patrick supported shore up the finances of the troubled of Education (1992-1996). Patrick Craddick against Republican Rep. Jim Teachers' Retirement System. She also

Diane Patrick

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 23 hopes to improve transportation in like Bolton play the game in Austin and Bolton, 47, has spent most of her Arlington—particularly in advance of communicate with their constituents career working for nonprofits, includ- the new Dallas Cowboys stadium under back home will determine in part how ing as training director for the National construction. Another hot topic in her they fare in 2008. Center on Domestic and Sexual area is the proposal to build 18 new Bolton has red hair, a warm smile, Violence. Bolton's district is considered coal-fired power plants that could pol- and an innocent demeanor that belies the gateway to the Hill Country lute North Texas air. Patrick said she an inner toughness that enabled her and is facing numerous problems, wants to "make sure that [plants] are to survive a bruising primary and including how to cope with expanding using the highest [air quality] stan- equally bruising general election. population and development at a time dards." Yet it's her knowledge of the She was one of 11 candidates—five when wells are running dry and water complexities of public education that Republicans, four Democrats, and two resources are shrinking. At the Lege, helped put Patrick in the House and Libertarians—who vied for the posi- she hopes to focus her attention on could make her an interesting legislator tion Keel vacated. Though Bolton was a issues she campaigned for—more to watch this session.— DM newcomer to politics, she nevertheless pay for teachers, better healthcare for managed to beat back a challenge in children and the mentally disabled, WALKING THE LINE the Democratic primary from Jason affordable housing, and a more open Valinda Bolton (D-Austin) Earle, the son of Travis County District and accountable government. She As Valinda Bolton strode onto the Attorney Ronnie Earle, and went on also hopes to help draft legislation House floor for the first time, sur- to defeat Republican Bill Welch in the that would give county governments rounded by family members and clad general election. more tools to manage growth and in the red power suit she wore when The Republicans lined up solid- development. she kicked off her election bid, she ly behind Welch, who raised almost As a state legislator from a swing had no doubts about whom she was $700,000, compared with the $225,000 district, Bolton knows there will be going to vote for in the speaker's race: amassed by Bolton. Welch received more tough votes ahead. She's ready. Jim Pitts. Then the hours of wrangling nearly $435,000 in contributions from "I live in a district that's evenly split and parliamentary maneuvering began. the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC and and has mainstream values," she said. "We had several votes," Bolton said. "I another $65,000 from Houston home- "They want the House to get focused tried to vote in a way that would sup- builder Bob Perry. TLR will no doubt and work on issues that will benefit all port Pitts and make the process more be watching Bolton's votes closely. the families of Texas."— EW confidential and less risky." Suddenly Pitts withdrew from the contest, leav- ing Bolton and other House members with one choice: a vote for or against Craddick. Bolton, the new Democratic repre- sentative of District 47, which encom- passes southwest Travis County and the southern tip of Austin, was conflicted. Her index finger nervously moved back and forth across the red and green but- tons. "I had a strong, strong feeling that we needed different leadership," she said. "But I also felt it was important to cast a vote for the healing and solidar- ity of the House and the ability to work across the aisle." Taking a deep breath, she pushed the button for Craddick. Bolton's dilemma mirrored that of several other freshmen Democrats this session. Her district, formerly held by Republican Terry Keel, is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. If she wants her political career to last longer than one session, she'll have to be responsive to both sides. How freshmen Democrats in tough districts Valinda Bolton

24 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 who should be speaker of the House. Those who voted for the measure were widely seen as supporters of the insur- gency against the incumbent Speaker Craddick. After Craddick's challeng- er Jim Pitts dropped out, the vote to approve Craddick became largely sym- bolic. No one would have faulted Garcia for voting for Craddick; he was the only candidate. Nonetheless, Garcia was one of only 27 members to vote against the speaker from the floor. "I felt [a sense of] real intimidation [on the floor]," Garcia said afterward. "I can't go along with that." Three days later, the House took up its rules. Garcia broke with the tradi- tion that freshmen should be seen but not heard by offering a key amend- ment. Having campaigned on more openness in government, Garcia's amendment called for all votes on the second reading of bills to be recorded. Second reading is often when support for a bill really matters. Garcia says he didn't believe such a measure would make it out of committee with the current leadership, so an amendment to the rules was his best shot. It was a rough floor fight, and Garcia's amend- ment eventually died at the hands of Craddick lieutenant and Houston Democrat Harold Dutton. Still, Garcia may have won over some of his peers with his humility and good humor. At one point, a Republican accused him of trying to sneak something past the membership. Garcia replied: "I don't know the process well enough to hide the bill." Juan Garcia "It was a lot more dramatics than I envisioned," Garcia said a few days later. Despite the defeat, Garcia says his HIGH FLYER friends. Surprisingly, so far Garcia has constituents are ecstatic over the effort.

Juan Garcia (D - Corpus Christi) not disappointed. Now comes the tough part. If the new The toughest challenge for Juan He knocked off well-funded incum- representative in a swing district didn't Garcia may be living up to the hype bent Gene Seaman in a majority already have a target on his back, the that surrounds his incipient political Republican district. And his constitu- Republican leadership will surely come career. Many, including us (see, "The ents didn't even have to wait a week for gunning for him after his activities dur- Contender," September 22, 2006), have him to start fulfilling campaign prom- ing the session's first week. "Given my commented on the 40-year-old Garcia's ises. "When a first time candidate beats first 72 hours, I'm anticipating a seat on dream resume: Harvard law degree, a 10-year incumbent, it means people the cupcake committee," he says. Gulf War veteran, Navy pilot, White want change. They don't want me to Time will tell how far Garcia gets as House service, a Hispanic surname with wait in line," Garcia says. a politician, but if his beginning is any the looks and accent of an Anglo, and Garcia voted with a majority of indication, he will go far, and it will be above all, powerful and well-connected Democrats for a secret ballot to decide fun to watch.—JB ■

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 25 —Ns, continued from page 5 an executive order and charged it with —Forensic, continued from page 13 studying and "identify[ing] new, cleaner not be found 'actually innocent' and FEAR FACTOR Poor TXU Corp.–in coal-fired electric generation technolo- Willingham executed based on the same the mega-utility's bid to build 11 highly gies." In 2005 the council, composed scientific evidence," Sheck wrote to the unpopular coal-fired power plants, it mostly of state elected officials and commissioners. Texas has the highest finds itself nearly friendless. Though agency heads, delivered a report to percentage of arson convictions in the still loved by Gov. Rick Perry (it didn't the governor. In addition to pushing nation. Many other Texans may have hurt that the company helped pay for for "clean coal" as a solution to Texas' been sent to prison for arson crimes they his last campaign and his inauguration) energy needs, it recommended a "cam- didn't commit. and adored by Wall Street (soaring paign in advance of new mining projects Without money, the commission has profits from high electricity rates), TXU and coal-fueled electric generation ... taken no action on the Willingham case is taking an almost daily pounding from to address the [public's] lack of current or any other. Commission Chair Debbie just about everyone else. Dallas Mayor knowledge and erroneous information." Lynn Benningfield, who works as an Laura Miller has corralled 35 localities The report also noted that the coun- administrator in the Houston police fin- into the Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition cil–at the urging of its Vice Chairman gerprint lab, refuses to comment on cases to oppose the company's plans. A group Clifford Miercroft (former president of that might be pending before the com- of Dallas businessmen–including real the North American Coal Corp.)–had mission (other commissioners referred estate tycoon Trammell Crow–is publicly authorized the creation of a nonprof- questions to Benningfield). Choosing calling for TXU to cease and desist. Time, it foundation, which had paid for the her words carefully, Benningfield says then, to buy some new friends. TXU report announcing its inception. commissioners are focused primarily and other coal interests have enlisted The foundation is stacked almost on securing funding from the just-con- the help of McDonald Public Relations exclusively with reps from coal-related vened Legislature. Group. The Austin-based outfit special- corporations, including power genera- The commission certainly won't cost izes in the creation of instant citizen tors TXU and American Electric Power much. Commissioners are unpaid and groups, and most recently helped to Co., as well as mining giants North meet in donated space. The commission pass voter-approved "tort reform" in American Coal Corp. and Westmoreland would need $156,000 for administra- 2003. Coal Co. In 2005, according to IRS tive and setup costs in its first two years, The McDonald Group runs a recent- records, foundation members spent according to an analysis by the Legislative ly formed, TXU-funded group called $220,000 on coal-related pursuits Budget Board. Some proponents of the Texans for Affordable and Reliable through the McDonald Group. The foun- commission hope the Legislature will Power. Donna McDonald, a vice presi- dation's latest report, "Power Outage," make an emergency appropriation so dent of the firm, describes TARP as a lists Donna McDonald as its administra- the panel can begin work soon. If law- "grassroots organization of local elected tive director. The report argues that makers include funding for the 2008- officials" who "came together to sup- "unless the utility companies that serve 2009 fiscal year, which isn't guaranteed, port these new plants." Membership Texas begin building additional capacity the commissioners will have to wait at consists of a dozen or so city officials immediately, the rolling blackouts that least until next September. Hinojosa says from small towns near some of the pro- shocked consumers across this state in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, posed coal plants. TARP has registered April of 2006 could become all too com- chaired by Sen. Whitmire, may hold three lobbyists with the Texas Ethics monplace." In a recent speech in Wichita hearings on the commission's lack of Commission this year, including former Falls, Texas Association of Business funding. "We're going to be pushing Democratic State Rep. Paul Sadler, who President Bill Hammond used the threat this very hard to make sure that there has a lobbying contract with TXU val- of bad weather to raise a similar specter is funding," he says. "We want some ued between $50,000 and $100,000. of blackouts if the TXU facilities are not answers as to why it's taking so long:' Mayor Miller describes TARP as a built. Thanks to the good folks at the Sheck says, "You can't blame the com- TXU front group. "I thought it was really McDonald Group, expect to hear more missioners. They haven't been given any- amusing that they would create a coali- fear-mongering and see more pro-coal thing to work with." He believes that tion that they're funding and then try "grassroots" efforts in the months to innocent people may remain in Texas to pawn it off as a grassroots organi- come. ■ prisons, perhaps on death row, wrong- zation," chuckled Miller. "Our coalition ly convicted because of faulty forensic represents 7 million Texans." evidence. The longer the commission's McDonald Group is also the organizing LETTERS TO THE EDITORS work is stalled, the longer those injus- force behind the Clean Coal Technology tices remain, and the longer negligent Foundation of Texas, an industry-fund- 307. W 7th Street forensic practices persist in crime labs ed offshoot of the governor's Clean Austin, TX 78701 that could send more innocent people to Coal Technology Council of Texas. Perry [email protected] jail. "This is all taking entirely too much created the Council in 2002 through time Sheck says. ■

26 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 POETRY I BY WANDA GARNER CASH

TOXIC CITY

Sometimes of an evening in those rare days when temperature and humidity abandon their conspiracy to imprison us indoors, and deadlines and obligations loosen their grip to allow an hour's escape before darkness summons us to other tasks,

when the breeze trumps the polymer-etched filigree of stagnant ditch water, temporarily exiling fumes of mosquito fogger, cracking unit and diesel exhaust,

when the refinery bullhorn forgets the lyrics of the evacuation hymn and the unexpected silence lures daring souls into neglected garden and tennis court, outdoor adventure hitherto avoided in the oppressive ragout of haze and heat and toxic clouds,

when guilty delight banishes worry about work ahead or left undone, and neither ringing nor beeping interrupts this stolen peace,

when the yard dogs relent of their incessant protest about the cruel intentions of fleas and fences, and the chairs on the patio align with the shift change traffic, achieving an extra-dimensional feng shui, and create ascendance for the bubbling calm of swimming pool filter,

when jasmine and mourning dove and chlorine seduce my senses, I slip beneath the surface, suspending my reality, and thrill to the quivering distortion that lets me forget where I live.

WANDA GARNER CASH now teaches journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. In the previous 15 years, she edited newspapers and monitored pollution in Baytown, Galveston, and Brazosport. — Naomi Shihab Nye

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 27 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Corps Failure BY CHAR MILLER material, and by the end of this century to the still-submerged Lower Ninth the Crescent City is expected to have Ward. Wading through some of the 30 The Storm: What Went Wrong dropped an additional meter or so billion gallons of seawater and sewage and Why During Hurricane below sea level. that had inundated the city, he stopped Katrina—the Inside Story From The bad news keeps coming: The at a house in which he spotted a prized One Louisiana Scientist Gulf of Mexico is rising upwards of set of family photographs, high and dry By Ivor van Heerden and Mike Bryan 2 millimeters a year, a consequence on mantle. "The water was fetid, the air Viking of melting polar ice. The same global was rancid, I had seen a floating body 320 pages, $25.95 warming process is cooking the Gulf's not a block away, and there, right in surface, funneling new energy into any the middle of this apocalyptic disaster, ust when you thought hurricane moving across its steamy was a surreal vision through the open fate couldn't become expanse. A lower city, higher and hotter window of gowned graduates, smiling any crueler for post- waters, more-punishing storms: The brides and grooms, proud parents and Katrina New Orleans, it end is at hand. grandparents, happy babies. For some did. A December article So Ivor van Heerden has long prophe- reason, this was the scene that put me in Geophysical Research sied. The co-founder and deputy direc- over the edge and broke my heart." Letters concluded that—in addition tor of LSU's Hurricane Center and direc- This was also the scene that led him to to sinking—southeastern Louisiana tor of the university's Hurricane Public think beyond the first-person singular: is actually sliding into the Gulf of Health Center has been warning for the "Where were these people now? If even Mexico. past decade about the potential devas- alive, what future did they have? How New Orleans and the Mississippi tation to New Orleans should a major had they been served by their govern- Delta sit on a "large listric normal fault storm crash into southern Louisiana. ment? I felt I could and should speak for system" that is sagging beneath the Even a weakening Category 3—which them, and I did." Cassandra had found weight of sediment channeled by the Katrina proved to be—would wreak his clients. Mississippi River. unfathomable damage, he advised well In their service, van Heerden has By itself, the pace of this previously before Katrina, the eighth major hur- written, with Mike Bryan, a chilling undetected movement seems relatively ricane to surge past New Orleans in examination of abject social failure. benign: The delta is shifting south at 45 years, crushed the Gulf Coast. As it More precise than Douglas Brinkley's 2 millimeters a year, and subsiding neared landfall, he sent out e-mail after sprawling tome, The Great Deluge, at roughly 5.2 millimeters a year. As harrowing e-mail warning of the com- and more scientifically informed than Roy Dokka, one of the report's authors ing cataclysm. When New Orleans went Breach of Faith, Jed Horne's evocative and executive director of the Center dark, van Heerden lit up. As "one of the memoir, The Storm recounts step-by- for GeoInformatics at Louisiana State more notorious Cassandras of recent step how the levees buckled, the politi- University, told the Associated Press, years, I was a pretty obvious target for cal establishment collapsed, the com- this process resembles an "avalanche the hundreds of reporters soon on the munications system went dead, and of material, except that it is happening scene," he writes. Appearing nightly on why the much-promised aid arrived so very slowly. It moved about the width Larry King, and daily on morning chat belatedly. You will have heard or read of two credit cards this year." shows and drive-time radio, as well some of these details before, but van Dokka's choice of image is more apt as every other possible media outlet, Heerden pulls them together to make than he perhaps knows: This seemingly he pounded local, state, and national clear that this was a human disaster of minimal geological deficit carries with officials for their criminal negligence unimaginable scale. it a number of hidden charges, a fine- and tin-eared politics; President Bush's Start with Pam, the hurricane print disaster in the making. Combine "pitiful flyover" was but one of many that wasn't. In July 2004, the Federal this new evidence, for example, with myopic moments. So van Heerden can Emergency Management Agency spon- well-documented studies indicat- be forgiven for wanting "to scream in sored a war games-like planning session ing that the city was already subsid- frustration, and, yes, a bit of self vindi- for a hypothetical "Big Blow" dubbed ing approximately 2 inches a year, in cation, We told you so.'" Pam. The weeklong session probed part because levees prevent sediment The Storm is not, however, an extend- many of the exact issues that would from stabilizing the soft ground. Add ed rant, because van Heerden decided erupt once Katrina hit: FEMA learned decades of groundwater pumping and he had another role to play. The epiph- which neighborhoods would flood and the disintegration of subsoil organic any came during one of his first visits to what depth, and what the human

28 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 costs would be; it was tutored, too, on and imperiled the lives of so many oth- will be grimmer still, van Heerden the impact a Category 5 storm would ers? Yet once you have finished these asserts, if "the right decisions are not have on the levee and pumping sys- pages, you'll understand the blunt made about the levees and the wet- tems, and on the communications grid. indictment of Aaron Broussard, presi- lands." Absent a massive commitment Evacuation plans were also tested; how dent of Jefferson Parish: "Bureaucracy to repair what humans have torn asun- would people escape, by what means, has committed murder here in the der, New Orleans will vanish beneath and where would they go? As for the greater New Orleans area." the waves, resurfacing only in legend as latter issue, van Heerden had a sugges- You'll understand as well why van the Creole Atlantis. ■ tion: The U. S. Army should pre-stage, Heerden demands that "the same fed- and then erect, multiple tent cities, as it eral government that drowned New Char Miller is director of urban studies has in Bosnia, Iraq, and elsewhere. His Orleans with the failure of its levees at Trinity University and is author of idea was pilloried by one FEMA official should compensate all of those who Gifford Pinchot and the Making of who snorted, "Americans don't live in lost lives and homes." Should it choose Modern Environmentalism and the tents!" (In retrospect, those instant, to rebuild and better protect "the City forthcoming Ground Work: Essays in temporary, and nearby camps might that Care Forgot," van Heerden has American Environmental Culture. have been a godsend given the mass sketched out an array of environmen- chaos, bungled evacuation efforts, and tal and technological fixes in the final New Orleans' continuing struggle to chapter. He does a nice job of describ- reclaim its workforce, now scattered ing why southeastern Louisiana has lost across the country.) and must regain its marshes; how it Van Heerden denounces FEMA for its can restore surge-protecting wetlands insufferable arrogance and bureaucratic by redirecting the Mississippi's flow lethargy, which also got a trial run dur- and making its levees more porous; ing the Pam exercises. He levels charge how shoals can be dredging up to after irrefutable charge that the agency's reconstruct barrier islands; and how catastrophic breakdown post-Katrina Dutch floodgate technology can bottle bespeaks a larger, more disquieting pat- up fast-moving waters and minimize tern: "Americans need to understand scouring waves. All that is missing, he that their government is totally unpre- acknowledges, is the necessary funds pared for major natural disasters, let (which might top $250 billion) and the alone the terrorist's dirty bomb or bio- requisite "political and civic courage." logical/chemical attack. Don't kid your- Because cash and courage are in short self. Very little, if anything, has changed supply, The Storm ends as a dirge. "The since September 11, 2001." fight for the future of New Orleans is But van Heerden is most disturbed by going to be a long and difficult one. I the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Like now picture a big theme park as the end FEMA, it has refused to take responsi- result, a plastic place of no vitality" in vee sawyer photography bility for its actions and inactions; like which those "with the least resources www.veesawyer.corn FEMA, it has tried to finger other agen- are sure to lose the most." The future cies and individuals for the collapse of the system it built and promised would withstand a Category-3 hurricane. But Got opinions about what its studied incompetence has been so pronounced, its ignorance about how the Legislature will do this spring? badly it got things wrong, from basic geomorphology to structural design, Want to make yourself heard? has been so shocking that it is little wonder that van Heerden devotes more Please join us for than 100 pages to the Corps' screwups and cover-ups. These chapters are not easy reading. Women's Legislative Days Who, after all, really wants to know that public safety in New Orleans and Uniting women for fairness and equality elsewhere is in the hands of cocksure January 28-30, 2007 • Austin, TX civil engineers whose inflated self-con- vvvvw.bavicLorg • [email protected] fidence in this case led to 1,300 deaths

JANUARY 26, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 29 AFTERWORID I BY WADE WILLIAMS The 2nd Biggest Mesquite Tree in Texas

r maybe it was the coun- story began. ... My father came and stood beside try or even the world. I "I'll show you something," my father me. "Two people can't reach their arms don't remember, and said one day. around it," he said. Of course we tried. what good would it do This was in early fall, when the days Of course he was right. to look it up now? were still hot but their ends had that I grew up and went away. Several years Sometimes my father, smokiness, that haziness. We were driv- later, one summer, I came back to see if inexplicably,0 would pick me up from ing down by the river, where the river this place I thought of as home really school. The dirty oil-field pickup would became the lake, where the sand, rock, was home in the sense that I wanted the pull to the curb in front of Crestview and mesquite gave way to lime rock word to mean. I'd come back because, Elementary, and my 9-year-old heart and cedar, and the flat fields and pas- at 27, I didn't know what else to do would leap. tures grew gnarled and corrugated. The or where else to go. I'd run into a wall I remember the walk past the other roads were narrower and twisted, water where I hadn't expected one to be. I'd country kids in the bus line, feeling seeped through mossy green crevices come back to the one place where there their uncomprehending eyes as I left in the bluffs the highway cut through, were no dragons. their ranks, feeling like I was lifting off— and sometimes you crossed a creek, and I got a job working in the oil field, and reprieved and summoned—and how the road would dip suddenly, and the I spent a lot of time that summer driving I would open the door of the pickup temperature, just for a few yards, plum- around on some of the same roads my slowly, careful not to let the empty Bud meted 20 degrees. We were out where father and I had driven, drinking beer, cans roll out. I remember the blast of the sky stepped back and left you alone. listening to Willie Nelson—not because frigid air across my face as I climbed To me, this was unfamiliar territory I was looking to recapture anything from into the air-conditioned cab. I closed the and marked the beginning of the rest my youth or understand what my father door and never looked back, but tomor- of the world. I didn't know the roads, was going through when I was a boy, but row I'd be back among them, and none couldn't keep up with the turns. I always simply because, like him I suppose, I of this would matter again. sat up on the edge of the seat when we liked driving, drinking beer, and listen- We didn't go anywhere. I mean, there went that far. Here there be dragons, the ing to Willie Nelson. Anyway, I couldn't was no destination. There was no point ancient maps said. To know what I mean, have recaptured any of that—the roads to the drives other than that my father you must go there someday. were all much too familiar to me now had finished a job early and didn't want Toward dusk one day, my father Those memories of driving them with to go home to my mother, whom he pulled to the side of a very quiet county my father, the feeling of exploration, of didn't love, and didn't want to be alone. road and parked and killed the engine. being surprised by something around He just wanted to drive. Immediately the sound of insects in every turn, could not be replicated. The We kept to the dirt roads, the two-lane the trees filled up the world. A breeze stronger memories were of driving these blacktops. Sometimes we drove with the ruffled the short grasses in the small roads with high-school buddies, listen- windows down. Smell of wheat, smell field across the road. It was a feeling like ing to the Steve Miller Band and throw- of cedar, smell of dust and asphalt and we'd reached the place we'd been trying ing beer bottles at the road signs. If I was beer and oil. to get to all this time, though I couldn't feeling at all nostalgic, it was not for my He drank beer and drove, and Willie have been more than eight or nine years childhood but for my adolescence, those Nelson played on the eight-track, which old. The sun was going down fast, and days and nights of Schaeffer and Bud was a new thing, a remarkable thing. We the fringed edges of the trees below the in an ice chest in my buddy's mother's listened to Yesterday's Wine, Phases and sky were flaming, but the trees were dark van, back when we owned everything Stages, the incomparably sublime Red and without substance. we could see. Headed Stranger. When the stranger shot I saw the sign first: "Second biggest On some of the drives I had a com- the yellow-haired lady after she reached mesquite tree in ..." Then I saw the panion. She was the younger sister of for his dead wife's horse I was, every tree. How could I have missed it? It was one of my oldest friends, home that time ... astonished, mesmerized, satis- enormous. summer, too, fleeing a bad marriage in fied but not satisfied. I wanted to know We got out of the pickup. My father Washington state. I'd known her almost more. I wanted not just to know why, pissed at the edge of the road. I walked her whole life, but she'd always been my but to understand why. The tape looped down to the tree and looked at it. Part friend's little sister, the cute, funny one, back to the beginning: of looking at the tree was knowing that and when I saw a pretty girl at the post It was the time of the preacher, when the somewhere there was one bigger. office one afternoon, I remember being

30 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JANUARY 26, 2007 briefly embarrassed by my casual attrac- "Do you think you'll go back to him?" her parents' house at Christmas, down tion when she turned and I saw who I asked her. at the family lake cabin when I was pass- it was—it felt incestuous. "I heard you "I don't know," she said. She was only ing through and dropped in to see her were in," she said. 24. brother, who'd come back to run the I played Blood on the Tracks for her, One afternoon we were driving down family enterprises—and never for more read her a story I'd written about a man by the lake. "I'll show you something:' I than a few minutes, never alone, always who comes back to search through a said. in passing. Those few times I've seen pasture for a grave he remembers hav- We didn't become lovers. I suppose her since then, she was, as before, an old ing found as a child. He never found we thought about it. I'd held her hand friend's youngest sister. it, in the story or in real life. One night tightly while we watched that lightning But I remember the feeling of the coming back from eating Mexican food storm, but nothing else. In all, I probably bark rough against my skin that sum- in Wichita Falls, we saw the most intense wasn't back home for more than a cou- mer as I lay my cheek against the tree, and theatrical lightning storm I'd ever ple of months, and our little flirtation stretching my arms tight around the experienced. It filled up the entire sky, couldn't have lasted more than five or six trunk, reaching for her fingers, and my 360 degrees, and it played the entire hour weeks, though I wouldn't be surprised to utter faith that, on the other side of the and a half it took to drive down to the be confronted with evidence that it was tree, she was reaching just as urgently lake, and it never did rain. One night we only half that. for mine. ■ stayed up until dawn, sitting on the boat I don't get back home very often now, dock of her parents' lake house, watch- and in the 10 years since that summer Wade Williams, a former James A. ing a feeding frenzy of sand bass under I've probably seen her only two or three Michener Fellow at the Texas Center for the halogen light at the end of the dock. times—her sister's wedding, maybe at Writers, lives in Houston. IZED ROUNDUP THANK YOU GOES OUT TO: Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower AWESOME AUCTIONISTAS of Texas Press, Vee Sawyer`Photography, for inspiration and conversation. Elena Eidelberg, Heidi Gibbons, Carol Penny Van Horn, Vulcan Video, Wink Gibbs, Ellen Gibbs, Suzy Reid & Bev Shaw Restaurant, Zen Information Technologies Davis McLarty who has rallied us for six years to rouse so many of you (and AUCTION DONORS Casserole Queens, Lori Hansel, Texas for those of you who missed it, there's Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Architerra French Bread, The Soup Peddler, always next year!) Studios, Austin Film Society, Austin Threadgill's Restaurant, & Thundercloud Theatre Alliance, Badgerdog Literary Subs for scrumptious sustenance DONORS Publishing, Bark For Peace, Craig Barker, Cool Cat —Vic Hinterlang, Eve & Erin Steve Bickerstaff, Blue Dog Printing, Matt Omohundro, designer par excellence McArthur BookPeople, Cafe Josie, Cantina Laredo, Julia Austin, event coordinator & intrepid Capitol Brasserie, Wanda Garner Cash, stage manager Cat's Meow — Linda Aaker & Bob Casserole Queens, Kay Colvin—San Miguel Armstrong, Jocelyn Doherty, Rachel Glast, Shoes, Cosette Originals, Abbe DeLozier, The Austin Chronicle, KGSR 107.1, & KUT The Honorable Donna Howard, Elisabeth Eddie V's Edgewater Grill, Esther's Follies, 90.5 for fabulous publicity Piedmont-Marton, Kathi Thomas, True Four Corners Tiles, Laura Garanzuay, Ellen Courage Action Network Gibbs, Todd Gibbs, Greater Tuna, Guero's Direct Events, Kelly Graphics, La Zona Taco Bar, Jim Hightower, Sam Hurt, Hyde Rosa, & Motorblade PHENOMENAL MUSICIANS Park Bar & Grill, Katsu Designs, Mary Law, Eliza Gilkyson w/ Glenn Fukunaga, Jim Lutz, Laura Maclay, Davis McLarty, WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS Michael Hardwick, & Cisco Ryder Melancholy Ramblers, Deborah Mersky, Candace Carpenter, Carolyn Cook, Ian Molly Ivins, Monkeywrench Books, Moxie Davis, Chris Dennis, Susan Emery, Amy Maneja Beto — Bobby Garza, Nelson & the Compound, Mozart's Coffee Roasters, Everhart Davis, Danny Gerling, Joan Gibbs, Valente, Alex Chavez, Patrick Estrada, Bill Oakey, P&N Liquor, Pizza Hut, Alan Stephanie Holmes, Katherine Jashinski, Alec Padron Pogue, Karen Rezny, Seven Bluff Cabins— Katie Mahoney, Dan Mottola, Kelly Sharp, The Horsies — Bill Anderson, Julia Betty Ferguson, Sisters & Brothers, Inc., Nhu Truong, Can Weiland Austin, Brant. Bingamon, Sheri Lane, Rich Liz Smith, Taylor-Made Tutoring, Tesoros Malley Trading Co., Trulock's Seafood Restaurant, And all who attended to celebrate and University of Texas at Austin, University support The Texas Observer!

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