CHEMICAL COMPANY PACPIGGERY Pg. 3

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES NOVEMBER 11, 1994 • $1.75

' CARMEN GARCIA Don t Cry for Me, Argentina George W. Bush Sold His Father's Name and a Pipeline in South America • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Jack Brooks v. the Department of Justice The Beaumont Congressman (Still) Wants to Get to the Bottom of the Inslaw Scandal • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Bankers, Bullies and Bastards Texas Megabanks Want to Cripple Your Credit Union DIALOGUE

West Texas Waste Dumps tells us that, in order to avoid having to Ann Richards has been appearing with her accept nuclear waste from other states, we grandchildren in recent campaign ads and fffst must accept nuclear waste from other it is a comforting, touching portrait. How states. Well, this is Texas, so you expect fortunate for all of them that her grandchil- to hear politicians saying wild things like dren, unlike the children of Sierra Blanca, that, and people even vote them into office don't have to grow up in the shadow of ad- afterwards, amazing as that may seem to jacent sewer sludge from New York and the denizens of the less-colorful world nuclear waste from Texas and our first outside our borders. It is tough, though, to A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES understand how such a sweet grandmother, We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the compact partners, Maine and Vermont. truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are ded- [See "Balancing Nuclear Waste, TO who seems to care so much for her own icated to the whole truth, to human values above all in- grandchildren, could do such a thing to terests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation of 9/2/94.] The sludge, which zipped through democracy: we will take orders from none but our own the state licensing process in a record 23 the little children of Sierra Blanca. conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent Gary Oliver, Marfa. the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater days after its hauler made a $1.5 million to the ignoble in the human spirit. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not sludge research grant to Texas Tech, con- Mexican Lit Lives for anything they have not themselves written, and in tains pathogens and heavy metals. The publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agree with them, because this is a journal of free voices. Surgeon General's battle cry of Zero Tol- For someone like myself who lived in erance for lead (because of its disastrous Monterrey, Nuevo Leon (Mexico) for 20 SINCE 1954 effects on young children) is echoed by all years, Mr. Kellman's article in the Septem- Founding Editor: Ronnie Dugger branches of the EPA save one—the Sludge ber 30 issue, "Literary Free Market," [on Risk Assessment Division. They have a the Eighth Annual Inter-American Book- Editor: Louis Dubose Associate Editor: James Cullen number for safe lead levels. The nuclear fair and Literary Festival in San Antonio] Production: Peter Szymczak waste en route will contain, along with the was confusing: "... NAFTA has put Mexi- Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka medical gloves and booties touted by Gov. can governments out of the business of Editorial Interns: Todd Basch, Mike Daecher, Ophelia Richter, Darvyn Spagnolly. Richards' minions, plutonium and cesium- publishing imaginative literature. ... book- Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Barbara Belejack, 137, among other horrors. The idea is to fair guests ... Abraham Nuncio ... Andres Betty Brink, Warren Burnett, Brett Campbell, Peter take a thousand-year toxic, pack it in a Huerta come from Nuevo Leon and can Cassidy, Jo Clifton, Carol Countryman, Terry Fitz- offer evidence of the benefits and banes Patrick, Richard Fricker, James Harrington, Bill hundred-year container and bury it in a Helmer, Jim Hightower, Ellen Hosmer, Molly Ivins, 40-foot trench near an isolated, poor, mi- [?] of socialized publishing." Steven Keliman, Michael King, Deborah Lutterbeck, nority-heavy community in an area of re- I know both columnist Nuncio and poet Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Debbie Nathan, Huerta and they know as well as I that James McCarty Yeager. cent seismic activity. Now, the big Texas Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; utilities want the cheaper dumping rates Mexican publishing is alive and kicking, Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler that will result from the increased volume be it in the publication by the federally Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; sponsored CULTURA DE FONDO ECO- Bob Eckhardt, Austin; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; that waste importation—perhaps massive Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cam- waste importation—will provide. So Ann NOMICO, by the privately owned Monter- bridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; rey's IXTLACIHATL, or the University of George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; Vera Cruz's output. Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Jackson, Miss.; Kaye 0.0.1.146 e• Remarks like this about the "effect of Northcott, Fort Worth; James Presley, Texarkana; % ■■4 ea NAFTA" are as unfounded as the fears by Susan Reid, Austin; Geoffrey Rips, Austin; A.R. (Babe) Horse Northamerican labor that their factories, Schwartz, Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. because of NAFTA, will dash off to Mex- Poetry Consultant: Thomas B. Whitbread • Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Hin- • Inn ico. Anyone with any knowledge of the terlang, Alan Pogue. 0 production infrastructure of the latter can Kitchenettes Cable TV Contributing Artists: Michael Alexander, Eric Avery, 0 easily verify that such apprehension is Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Heated Pool Epstein, Valerie Fowler, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin • equally groundless. Kreneck, Michael Krone, Carlos Lowly, Gary Oliver, Ben beside the 0/d•g/Mexi•o Sarah P. Simon, Houston Sargent, Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods, Matt Wuerker. on Mustang island Spare That Snake Business Manager: Cliff Olofson Available kw private parties Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom . Unique Elll'OpecIll C11(11111 When Jim Hightower ("Ban Dioxin," TO Development Consultant: Frances Barton & /111110.Spilt'le 10/14/94) looks at dioxin and sees snakes, SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time 41)V I corionliciii Spring mai Suinincr Rate ■ °,, you have to wonder what brand of poison students $18 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Micro- he's been into. Listen, Jim, the real cowboy films Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Any current sub- Pets Welcome scriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no (ear code teaches that when you're confronted one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. by a big, coiled snake you mind your own INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary 1423 11th Street** Index to Periodicals: Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 1981 ,The damn business, which is all the snake asks Texas Observer Index. .611" Port Aransas, TX 78373 1 THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519IUSPS 541300), entire contents you to do. Snakes are here to help the earth copyrighted, 0 1994, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval between issues in January and July (25 issues per year) by the Texas Democ- call (512) 749-5221 maintain a healthy balance of species, so racy Foundation, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) let's be sure to place the blame where it 477-0746. E-mail: [email protected]. for Rcsertm ions ,j Second-class postage paid at Austin, Texas. belongs: man-made dioxin, not snakes, are POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. a plague on the natural environment. A.C. Hall, Dallas

2 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994 EDITORIALS T HEserver TEXAS Bush Deals and PAC Pigs NOVEMBER 11, 1994 VOLUME 86, No. 22 IFORNIA REPUBLICAN Senate distance, made a decision early in the cam- Candidate Michael Huffington' s state- paign to establish his own identity and FEATURES ment "I want a government that doesn't would often bristle when reporters asked work," brings to mind the oxymoronic stu- about the advantage of carrying his father's George W. Bush in Argentina pidity of Francisco Franco's fascist cheer: name into a political race. But he didn't By David Corn 4 "Long live death." Miguel de Unamuno mind carrying it into Argentina, where Jack Brooks v. Justice rose from his chair at the University of along with a half-page project proposal it By Richard Fricker 6 Salamanca and in one sound bite revealed might have helped sell a pipeline. the general and his generals as the fools that The Bankers' Lament they were. But Huffington, a displaced AY BAILEY HUTCHISON is a Sena- By Robert Bryce 10 Texas oilman who in 1992 bought a seat in for who might take issue with Michael the U.S. House with $5 million of his own Huffington' s "government-that-doesn't- DEPARTMENTS money and who is now spending more than work" line. Government has worked for her $20 million of his own money to buy a U.S. husband's (Ray Hutchison) law firm, where Editorial Senate seat, might actually want a govern- government bond work can be almost as George Bush and PAC Pigs 3 ment that doesn't work. risk-free as some government bonds are tax- Molly Ivins George W. Bush, the oilman who never free—and far more lucrative. But Senator left Texas, understands the importance of Hutchison is not fmancing her own cam- Right-Wing Stealth Loonies 11 government that does work, as Austin paign and her corporate sponsors will expect Jim Hightower American-Statesman political writer Dave a government that works—at least for them. NAFTA Shams; Congressional McNeely explained in a column looking at One major corporate sponsor is the pesticide Games; Captive Market 12 how government has worked for Bush's PACs, according to reports compiled by Texas Rangers. "Public bonds paid $135 Washington- and Austin-based environmen- Potomac Observer million of the $191 million the stadium tal groups. "The pesticide industry suffered a Congressional Business cost. A half-cent sales tax in Arlington will major court loss in 1992 and is fighting to By James McCarty Yeager 13 pay for $84 million of the bond payoff." have Congress overturn it," said Kelsey "The city," McNeely wrote, "owns the Wirth of the Washington-based Environ- Las Americas land for the time being, but the Rangers mental Working Group, which along with On the Run in Guatemala have total control over what happens on it. the Texas Center for Policy Studies compiled By Guy Lawson 14 And in as few as a dozen years, while the and published the Pesticide PAC report. citizens of Arlington pay most of the cost of The chemical companies are counting on Books and the Culture the stadium's construction, the entire facil- Hutchison—who holds a commanding lead Zoo Where You're Fed to God ity can become the Ranger's property." in contributions received from corporate in- Book review by Ann Walton Sieber 16 McNeely also wrote of the Rangers' per- terests out to weaken the "Delaney Clause," Two Eagles: Border Photography suading the state to allow the team to ac- enacted to protect the country's food sup- Book review by Darvyn Spagnolly 17 quire property through eminent domain. ply. The junior Senator from Texas took in So George W. Bush understands the im- $150,000—in less than one year in office. Hoop Dreams portance of government that works—for Daniel Coats, an Indiana Republican, Movie review by Steven G. Kellman 18 him. He also knew how to make govern- placed second with $94,700, although it Through a Lens: FotoFest ment work for himself and friends several took him four years to collect it. Texas Sen- By Susanna Sheffield 20 years before he became a candidate for gov- ator Phil Gramm ranks 13th, with only Afterword ernor of Texas. In 1988, according to David $56,100 in Pesticide PAC money collected Corn's report in this issue, Bush Jr. made a over the four-year period monitored by the (Lubbock) The Beige Place pitch to the government of Argentina on be- environmental groups. Texas Democratic By Carol Reeves, 22 half of Enron, a Houston-based petroleum Representative Greg Laughlin, who company. When the Minister of Public squeaked into office in 1988 because of a Political Intelligence 24 Works seemed reluctant to grant the con- last-minute campaign blitz by Clean Water cession to Houston-based Enron (a com- Action and other environmental groups, Newt Gingrich, one of the more notorious pany packed with family friends and big placed second among House recipients of House PACPIGS. Sarpalius collected contributors to Bush Sr.), George W. ap- pesticide money, collecting $39,700. Rio $15,500 for 40th place, to 44th place Gin- plied the pressure. "He tried to exert some Grande Valley Democrat Kika de la Garza grich' s $13,863, proving wrong many of the influence to get that project for Enron," was 13th, taking in $24,500, Houston-area State House press corps who once swore Cabinet member Rodolfo Terragno told the Republican Jack Fields ranks 20th with then-Senator-Sap couldn't spell 2,4-D. Nation' s Corn. "He assumed that the fact he $22,500, Republican Joe Barton of Ennis is Two-hundred-twenty-four House mem- was the son of the [future] president would 37th with $16,000 and Amarillo Democrat bers now co-sponsor the pesticide industry exert influence...I felt pressured. It was not Bill Sarpalius proved that the blank look on bill written to weaken food safety protec- proper for him to make that call." his face doesn't necessarily mean what his tion; 22 Senators also co-sponsor it. Bush, who recently has kept his father at a critics say it does, by beating out Georgia's — L.D.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 3 George W Bush in Argentina

BY DAVID CORN

EVERAL YEARS AGO, Rodofo that kind of call." the Alfonsin Administration came to an end Terragno, an Argentine Cabinet Min- George W. Bush did not detail his rela- in 1989. Enron was luckier with the next 5 ister, received a telephone call from tionship with the pipeline project or Enron, one. The pipeline was approved by the ad- George W. Bush, son of the then-Vice Pres- according to Terragno. The Argentine did ministration of President Carlo Saul ident. When he hung up, Terragno was an- not know that Enron and the Bush set are Menem, leader of the Peronist Party and a noyed, he now says, for the younger Bush cozy. President Bush is an old friend of friend of President Bush. (The day after had tried to exploit his family name to pres- Kenneth Lay, the head of Enron for the past Menem was inaugurated, Neil Bush played sure Terragno to award a contract worth 10 years. Lay has been a major fundraiser a highly publicized game of tennis in hundreds of millions of dollars to Enron, a for President Bush. After the 1992 election Buenos Aires with Menem.) Some Argen- Houston-based firm close to the Bush clan. left Secretary of State (and Bush pal) James tine legislators complained that Menem of- During this past year, as Republican Baker jobless, he signed on as a consultant ficially cleared the pipeline project for de- George W. Bush campaigned throughout for Enron. An article by Seymour Hersh in velopment before economic feasibility Texas to replace Democratic Governor Ann the New Yorker last year disclosed that Neil studies were prepared. Richards, he portrayed himself as a suc- Bush, another presidential son (the one Replying to a list of questions from The cessful businessman who relied on "indi- cited by federal regulators for conflict-of- Nation asking whether George W. Bush vidual initiative," not his lineage. Con- interest violations regarding a failed say- spoke to Terragno about the pipeline pro- tacted recently in Buenos Aires, Terragno, ject and whether he had any business rela- now a member of the Chamber of Deputies, tionship with Enron, Bush's gubernatorial offered an account that challenges Bush's campaign issued a terse statement: "The an- campaign image. swer to your questions are no and none. In 1988, Terragno was the Minister of Your questions are apparently addressed to Public Works and Services in the govern- the wrong person." This blanket denial cov- ment of President Raul Alfonsin. Terragno ered one question that inquired if Bush ever oversaw large industrial projects, and his had discussed any oil or natural gas projects government was considering construction with any Argentine official. George W. of a pipeline to stretch across Argentina and Bush's response on this point is contra- transport natural gas to Chile. dicted by a 1989 article in the Argentine Several U.S. firms were interested, in- newspaper La Nacion that reported he met cluding Enron, the largest natural gas that year with Terragno to discuss oil in- pipeline company in the United States. But vestments. The newspaper noted the meet- Terragno was upset with the corporation's ing took place in Argentina but Terragno representatives in Argentina. They were says he saw Bush in Texas. pressing Terragno for a deal in which the Theodore Gildred, a private developer state-owned gas company would sell Enron George W. Bush CARMEN GARCIA again, is currently traveling in Argentina; his natural gas at an extremely low price and, office says he is unavailable. An Enron he recalls, they pitched their project with a ings and loan in Denver), had attempted to spokesperson said, "Enron has not had any half-page proposal, one so insubstantial do business with Enron in Kuwait. Enron's business dealings with George W. Bush, and that Terragno couldn't take it seriously. PAC and the families of its top officers we don't have any knowledge that he was in- Terragno let the Enron agents know he was have donated at least $100,000 to George volved in a pipeline project in Argentina." not happy with them. W. Bush's gubernatorial campaign. In late August, several members of the It was then, Terragno says, that he re- Shortly after his conversation with Chamber of Deputies—Terragno not ceived the unexpected call from George W. George W. Bush, more Bush-related pres- among them—submitted a parliamentary Bush, who introduced himself as the son of sure descended on Terragno, the former request for information, calling on President the Vice President. (The elder Bush was minister asserts. Terragno says he was paid Menem to answer dozens of questions about then campaigning for the Presidency.) a visit by the U.S. Ambassador to Ar- the business activities of the Bush family in George W., Terragno maintains, told the gentina, Theodore Gildred. A wealthy Cal- Argentina. (In 1987, Neil Bush created a minister that he was keen on Argentina's ifornia developer appointed ambassador by subsidiary of his oil company to conduct proceeding with the pipeline, especially if it President Ronald Reagan, Gildred was al- business in Argentina. In early August, a signed Enron for the deal. "He tried to exert ways pushing Terragno to do business with Buenos Aires newspaper reported that on a some influence to get that project for U.S. companies. This occasion, Terragno forthcoming trip to Argentina the former Enron," Terragno asserts. "He assumed that notes, was slightly different, for Gildred President would lobby the Menem govern- the fact he was the son of the [future] Pres- cited George W. Bush's support for the ment to allow a U.S. company to build a ident would exert influence.... I felt pres- Enron project as one reason Terragno casino in Argentina. The one-time President sured. It was not proper for him to make should back it. "It was a subtle, vague mes- said this was not true.) One of the deputies' sage," Terragno says, "that [doing what queries asked, "Did Menem know if George George W. Bush wanted] could help us W. Bush had attempted in Argentina to cap- This article is reprinted from The Nation, with our relationship to the United States." italize on his father's position?" So far where David Corn is a staff writer. Terragno did not O.K. the project, and Menem has not responded. ❑

4 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994 A public service message from the American Income Life Insurance Co. — Waco, Texas — Bernard Rapoport, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. (Advertisement)

Quisling Show

In November 1959, Hans J. Morgenthau, a professor of politi- of knowledge dealing with man. If it were otherwise, Plato and cal science at the University of Chicago, published an article in Aristotle, Sophocles and Shakespeare ... could mean nothing to The New York Times Magazine defending Columbia University us, except as objects for antiquarian exploration. for dismissing instructor Charles Van Doren for his part in the [The argument] that the trustees of Columbia University acted `Twenty-One" quiz show scandal. The article prompted a flood of with undue haste is the most curious of all, and it gives the show anonymous letters from Columbia students, all of whom op- away.... You look for reasons which justify your unwillingness to posed Van Doren's firing. The following is an adaptation of Mor- transcend that three-cornered relationship among yourself, your genthau's response to the students, which ran in the December teacher and your university and to judge the obvious facts by the 21, 1959, issue of The New Republic. standards of morality rather than adjust them for your and your teacher's convenience. You are sorry about losing an attractive You are stung by my assertion that you are unaware of the teacher and you hate to see that teacher suffer; nothing else moral problem posed by the Van Doren case, and you assure counts. But there is something else that counts and that is the me that you disapprove of his conduct. But my point is proved by sanctity of moral law. the very arguments with which you try to reconcile your disap- All men—civilized and barbarian—in contrast to the animals, proval of Van Doren's conduct with your petition to rehire him. are born with a moral sense; that is to say, as man is by nature Your concern is primarily with the misfortune of an attractive capable of making logical judgements, so is he capable by na- teacher, your regret in losing him and the rigor of the university's ture of making moral judgements.... Civilized man shares with decision. You support your position by five main arguments: The the barbarian the faculty of making moral judgements, but he ex- confession has swept the slate clean, Van Doren will not do it cels over him in that he is capable of making the right moral again, his teaching was above reproach, academic teaching is judgements, knowing why he makes them. He knows—as not concerned with substantive truth and the university acted Socrates, the Greek tragedians ... the Biblical prophets and the with undue haste. These arguments, taken at face value and great moralists and tragedians of all the ages know—what is erected into general principles of conduct, lead of necessity to meant by the sanctity of moral law. the complete destruction of morality. The moral law is not made for the convenience of man, rather If confession can undo the deed, no evil could ever be com- it is an indispensable precondition for his civilized existence. It is mitted and no evil-doer ever brought to justice. If wrong could be one of the great paradoxes of civilized existence that ... it is not so simply righted and guilt so painlessly atoned, the very distinc- self-contained but requires for its fulfillment transcendent orienta- tion between right and wrong, innocence and guilt, would disap- tions. The moral law provides one of them. pear; for no sooner would a wrong be committed than it would You will become aware of the truth of that observation. For be blotted out by a confession. Confession, even if it is freely when you look back on your life in judgement, you will remember rendered as an act of contrition and moral conversion, can miti- it, and you will want it to be remembered, for its connection with gate the guilt but cannot wipe it out. the things that transcend it. And if you ask yourself why you re- The argument that the morally objectionable act is not likely to member and study the lives and deeds of great men, why you be repeated assumes that the purpose of moral condemnation is call them great in the first place, you will find that they were ori- entirely pragmatic, seeking to prevent a repetition of the deed. ented in extraordinary ways and to an unusual degree to the Yet while it is true that according to the common law a dog is en- things that transcend their own existence. That is the meaning of titled to his first bite, it is nowhere written that a man is entitled to the passage from the Scriptures, "He that findeth his life shall his first murder ... or his first lie. The moral law is not a utilitarian lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." instrument aiming at the protection of society, even though its This connection between our civilized existence and the moral observance has this effect.... Oedipus did not think it was all right law explains the latter's sanctity. By tinkering with it, by sacrificing to marry his mother once since he did not do it again. Or would it for individual convenience, we are tinkering with ourselves as you suggest that evil-doers like Leopold and Loeb should have civilized beings, we are sacrificing our own civilized existence. gone free because it was most unlikely that they would repeat The issue before you, when you were asked to sign that peti- what they had done? tion on Charles Van Doren's behalf then, was not the happiness The arguments of the good teacher and of teaching not being of a particular man nor, for that matter, your own, but whether concerned with substantive truth go together. You assume ... you and your university could afford to let a violation of the moral that the teacher is a kind of intellectual mechanic who fills your law pass as though it were nothing more than a traffic violation. head with conventionally approved and required knowledge, as a Socrates had to come to terms with that issue, and he knew how filling station attendant fills a tank with gas. You don't care what to deal with it. You did not know how to deal with it. And this is the teacher does from 10 a.m. to 9 a.m. as long as he gives you why you hide your faces and muffle your voices. For since your from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. the knowledge which he has been paid to lives have lost the vital contact with the transcendence of moral transmit. You recognize no relation between a teacher's general law, you find no reliable standard within yourself by which to attitude towards truth and his way of transmitting knowledge, be- judge and act .... But once you have restored that vital connec- cause you do not recognize an organic relation between trans- tion with the moral law from which life receives its meaning, you mitted knowledge and an objective, immutable truth. Yet the view will no longer be afraid of your own shadow and the sound of that knowledge is but conventional—one conception of truth to your voices. You will no longer be afraid of yourself. For you will be superseded by another—while seemingly supported by the carry within yourself the measure of yourself and of your fellows radical transformations of physics, finds no support in the fields and the vital link with all things past, future and above.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5 Brooks vs. the Justice Dept. The Texas Delegation's Dean Seeks INSLAW Answers

BY RICHARD L. FRICKER

N EFFORT BY U.S. House Judi- Reno's jumping into bed with Reagan's The Reno report was based on the find- ciary Committee Chairman Jack closest political adviser in an effort to block ings of an earlier internal investigation con- ABrooks to bring a decade-long dis- legislation introduced by her own party has ducted by retired Federal Judge Nicholas pute between a computer software de- not gone unnoticed by Democrats in Bua. He concluded that the INSLAW signer, INSLAW Inc. and the U.S. Depart- Congress or the White House. Speaking claims were without merit and that the ment of Justice into open court failed in the from his Beaumont office in early October, House investigators who had spent two waning hours of Congress this past month. Brooks told the Observer, "The committee years on the case had misunderstood much The little-noticed bill that would have al- adopted legislation to allow the federal of what they discovered. lowed the company to challenge the Justice claims court to hear the case with no pre- Bua was appointed as a Special Counsel Department in open court died on a proce- sumption for either DOJ or INSLAW and by then-Attorney General William Barr on dural matter—but only after Attorney Gen- the Republicans blocked it. I'm sorry the November 7, 1991, in anticipation of the eral Janet Reno and her Republican prede- departMent decided to weigh in against the Brooks investigation report. Reno referred cessor Edwin Meese, himself a central legislation ... because it was ill-advised and to Bua during a press conference as a "spe- figure in the INSLAW controversy, made because they are a party of interest." cial prosecutor." The two positions are phone calls urging defeat of the bill. The INSLAW affair has maintained a vastly different; a "special counsel" reports Brooks, a Beaumont Democrat and dean place on the House Judiciary Committee directly to and works for the attorney gen- of the Texas Congressional delegation, has agenda since April 1990, when Brooks or- eral; a "special prosecutor" is allowed to been the most vocal and powerful high- dered an investigation into the software conduct his own independent investigation. level advocate of moving the decade-long company's claims. After a two-year investi- Commenting on the Reno report, Brooks fight out of Congress and into the federal gation, the committee concluded in a report said: courts. If Brooks—who is being targeted by dated September 10, 1992, that "it is clear "While I respect the seriousness of Republicans as a 42-year House veteran— that high level Department of Justice offi- their [DOJ] effort, I suspect that the is defeated, further investigation of the soft- cials deliberately ignored INSLAW' s pro- same career officials were relied upon by ware scandal probably goes down with him. prietary rights in the enhanced version of the department in preparing this report Since the scandal has been linked to the PROMIS and misappropriated this software as were relied upon in preparing the Bua "October Surprise," by which operatives for for use at locations not covered under the report. It was a total waste; he exoner- Ronald Reagan allegedly manipulated the contract with the company. Justice then pro- ated everybody. I thought they (INSLAW) release of American hostages in Iran in ceeded to challenge INSLAW' s claims in had been mistreated and were entitled to 1980 to hurt Jimmy Carter's re-election court even though it knew that these claims some fairness. The only way we can do chances, as well as a domestic surveillance were valid and that the Department would that is we need a statute to waive the program Oliver North ran out of the White most likely lose in court on this issue." statute of limitations they've run against House, some Democrats are asking why The committee also found that, "Attorney INSLAW partly because of the delaying Reno was collaborating with Iran-Contra Generals [Edwin] Meese and [Richard] litigation tactics of the department. I in- apologist Ed Meese in an attempt to stop the Thornburgh blocked or restricted congres- tend to work next year, despite the block- investigation the House Judiciary chair has sional inquiries into the matter, ignored the ing efforts of the Republicans to pass a been promoting for at least four years. findings of two courts and refused to ask for bill that would lay this whole thing to rest The bill, introduced by Charlie Rose, a the appointment of an independent counsel. once and for all. We've had enough de- North Carolina Democrat, and passed on a These actions were taken in the face of a partmental investigations and press partisan vote by the House Judiciary Com- growing body of evidence that serious speculation. I want a federal judge to de- mittee, would have allowed an airing of wrongdoing had occurred which reached to cide the matter." claims that the Reagan/Meese Department the highest levels of the Department." of Justice stole the INSLAW Inc. software, "The evidence," the committee reported, Among the House members contacted by known as PROMIS (Prosecutors Manage- "clearly raises serious concerns about the Reno was Representative John Bryant, a ment Information Systems), converted it possibility that a high level conspiracy Dallas Democrat. Bryant declined to char- for intelligence use, allowed it to be sold on against INSLAW did exist and that great acterize the call as lobbying, describing it the open market by a friend and political as- efforts have been expended by the Depart- instead as something of a position state- sociate of Reagan and Meese, gave it to for- ment to block any outside investigation into ment. Bryant told the Attorney General that eign intelligence agencies, then refused to the matter." he disagreed with her and that he would pay millions in court-ordered damages and Reno waited until September 29, when a stand behind the Rose bill. engaged in a cover-up spanning three ad- Judiciary subcommittee was considering But the bill, which had barely passed the ministrations and four attorneys general. the Rose bill, to release her own internal in- Senate, died in the House when Represen- vestigation clearing her department and tative F. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin recommending that the whole matter be Republican, objected on procedural Richard L. Fricker is an investigative re- laid to rest without compensation to IN- grounds. The Observer was told by a Re- porter living in Tulsa. SLAW or further court hearings. publican Congressional source speaking on

6 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994

.terwil.11,15r, background that Sensenbrenner decided to that are quite upset about this." Another Bush administrations. block the bill without consulting with party source familiar with the legislation and the leadership and that Sensenbrenner was not current administration said, "there is some HAT STARTED as examination lobbied by the DOJ or by other interested considerable sentiment in the White House of a contract dispute has become parties. that Reno is not a team player." W a journey to the dark side of But the off-the-record account of Sensen- Reno's work on blocking the legislation American politics, where no answer is com- brenner' s involvement doesn't exactly even caught the eye of a French newspaper, plete and motives are often, at best, obscure. square with events surrounding the Senate's Le Monde du Renseignement, which cited INSLAW Inc. was formed by Bill and

passage of the bill. The Senate was prepared Washington sources who said President Bill Nancy Hamilton as an , outgrowth of a non- to vote on the Rose bill at profit organization funded about 11:30 p.m. October 7, by the Law Enforcement when Minority Leader Bob Assistance Administration Dole placed it on hold. The (LEAA). The non-profit IN- Observer has been told that SLAW had been contracted Sen. Dole informed mem- by LEAA to develop a sys- bers of his party that he was tem to help law enforcement responding to a request from collect money owed the former Attorney General Ed government by career crimi- Meese. Dole ultimately nals and to track court cases, withdrew his hold in ex- witnesses and career crimi- change for another Senator nals. This original PROMIS clearing a bill Dole wanted was and remains in the pub- passed before adjournment. lic domain because it was Some Senate staffers claim developed with tax dollars. no knowledge of Meese's in- INSLAW Inc. merely con- ' volvement. However, others tracted to install PROMIS. close to the legislative body The system—which could claim to have firsthand integrate the CIA, DOJ, IRS knowledge of the Dole re- and other federal agency mark and say the Minority databases—was well-re- Leader changed his mind ceived among the target after he reconsidered the agencies. Ed Meese, then a controversy surrounding special counselor to Presi- INSLAW and DOJ. What is dent Reagan, told a conven- known is that the bill passed tion of law enforcement of- along party lines an hour after ficials in 1981, just prior to Dole released it, and Dole— awarding the INSLAW con- whose interest in the Repub- tract, that PROMIS, "pro- lican presidential nomination vides one of the greatest op- is on the record—deprived portunities for success in the opponents of a potential cam- future." paign issue. In May 1981, DOJ ap- Sensenbrenner was able to proved a project to install kill the bill because under the PROMIS in 20 U.S. Attor- House rule used to bring this ney offices across the coun- particular bill to the floor, try, with an eye toward-even- only one objection is re- tually installing the software quired from any representa- in all of the nation's Justice tive to stop passage. But Department offices. In Dole's hold maneuver and March 1982, INSLAW was Reno's phone calls leave awarded a $10-million con- room for speculation as to tract to install PROMIS in 94 additional Justice offices. At whether Sensenbrenner Jack Brooks STEWART F. HOUSE acted without consulting that time the 10 largest of- party leadership. fices were using INSLAW's On the Democratic side, there have been Clinton was "furious" with Reno. The paper computers on a time-share basis until the rumblings about Reno's part in closing the also said Democratic Majority Leader program was installed on site. door, for the moment, on the "INSLAW Af- Richard Gephardt had "sternly lectured" a Although the original PROMIS was pub- fair." One congressional source, speaking Reno aide and interpreted the Attorney lic domain, the improvements or, as they are on background, told the Observer that General's actions as a "clear sign that Reno known in the trade, "enhancements," to the Reno's actions were, "a slap in the face at is not running Justice." So the "INSLAW program belonged to INSLAW Inc. Justice the committee's report and that the commit- Affair," which began in the early days of the agreed in April 1982 to accept the enhanced tee is determined to see that the actions rec- Reagan Administration, now raises ques- version and pay INSLAW for the enhance- ommended by the report are delivered. It tions about Reno's ability to run the Depart- ments. But, the Justice/INSLAW marriage [the INSLAW Affair] is now a problem of ment of Justice—perhaps, in part, because got off to a rocky start and soon the two this [Reno's] Justice Department. I have a she has failed to replace much of the agency were immersed in contract disagreements. feeling there are people in the White House infrastructure created by the Reagan and Under an agreement still in dispute, IN-

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7 SLAW agreed to turn over a copy of its "en- Court's findings or of this Staff Study. The abortive Gestapo raid ordered by the health hanced" version for inspection to allow Jus- staff finds that the Department exercised director." The tapes eventually were re- tice to determine what additional monies poor judgement in ignoring the potential for turned to the state. were owed the company. Justice deter- a conflict of interest in its hiring of the Meese and Brian worked closely during mined that it owned all of the PROMIS pro- PROMIS Project Director, and then, after the Reagan California years. An investiga- gram and payments to the company were receiving allegations of a bias on his part, in tion of Meese by an independent counsel cut back and eventually suspended. failing to follow standard procedures to in- during the early years of the Reagan Presi- INSLAW, faced with the prospect of not vestigate them in a timely manner. dency found questionable business dealing getting paid and losing the multi-million "The staff study is also critical of the De- between Meese, Brian and a member of dollar contract, filed for bankruptcy court partment for its lack of cooperation with the Meese's staff Who reportedly acted as a protection on February 7, 1985. The com- Subcommittee in this investigation. In the conduit for loans from Brian to Meese and pany claimed that DOJ not only stole the Staff's view, the Department's intransi- his wife. INSLAW software but had made a con- gence on certain issues resulted in substan- Brooks' committee report called for ad- certed effort to force INSLAW into tial delays and seriously undercut the Sub- ditional investigation of Brian, his com- bankruptcy. committee's ability to interview in an open, pany Hadron and its relationship with the After several weeks of hearings and candid and timely manner, all those Depart- Department of Justice. Bua saw things dif- hours of testimony, bankruptcy judge ment employees who may have had knowl- ferently and his report cleared Brian. George Bason ruled that Thstice, through edge of the INSLAW matter." The report Reno's report also cleared Brian of any in- "Trickery, Fraud and Deceit," had stolen also called into question, as did Bason, the volvement in the INSLAW affair. (Brian INSLAW's version of PROMIS. In an ex- truthfulness of several Justice witnesses. also was the subject of a June 28, 1993, Se- haustive ruling he systematically discred- Justice remained steadfast in its position curities and Exchange Commission report ited every Justice witness, and found, as that nothing .wrong had happened. IN- that alleges he inflated profit reports on his stated in his ruling, that Justice testimony SLAW remained equally resolved that they Financial News Network, ran an elaborate was not only unreliable but unbelievable. had been wronged and turned to the House leaseback project which in essence Bason, who has published widely on Judiciary Committee. amounted to FNN paying itself for use of bankruptcy and is considered an expert in Bua, meanwhile, found Bason's ruling its own equiprrient and "attempted to con- his field, issued his ruling on January 25, faulty. In his report, Bua suggested that ceal the fraudulent equipment sale/lease- 1988. He was told within a few days there- since he was a retired Federal District back transactions from auditors..." after that his appointment to the bankruptcy Judge and Bason only a Bankruptcy Judge, While the Brooks and Bua reports circu- court would not be renewed by the U.S. Cir- Bua's own findings would be more correct. lated, allegations were evolving that the cuit Court of Appeals for the District of Bua then proceeded to find that Bason was PROMIS theft was only a part of a larger Columbia. After the Bush Justice Depart- in error, a finding that contradicted what picture that included the software's use by ment announced that Bason would not be fellow District Judge William B. Bryant foreign governments such as Israel, which reappointed, Kevin Reynolds, a lawyer who had ruled. Bryant not only read the entire reportedly used the program to track trou- had served as an aide to Connecticut Sena- transcript, as did Bua, but also listened to blesome Palestinians, and U.S. intelligence tor Christopher Dodd, spoke to about 20 tapes of the actual bankruptcy hearing. agencies such as the CIA and the National bankruptcy lawyers and later said that ev- Barr never actually accepted Bua's fmding, Security Agency (NSA)—sometimes eryone suspected that Bason was removed preferring to defer to whoever the new known as "no such agency" because of its because of his INSLAW ruling. Bason was President would appoint to the attorney super secret nature. replaced by an IRS attorney who had repre- general's post. Barr himself landed a job It had also previously been alleged that sented the government in a case against IN- with a prominent Washington law firm and Oliver North had a computer link to SLAW. Reno accepted Bua's findings. PROMIS while, as a national security aide Bason ordered Justice to pay INSLAW in the Reagan White House, he directed a $6.2 million in damages. His ruling was up- S THE HOUSE investigation was program that tracked dissidents and poten- held by a federal district court. But the winding down and Bua was gearing tial troublemakers in the United States in an Washington, D.C. appeals court dismissed up, other allegations had surfaced, emergency preparedness program commis- INSLAW's case against the Department of not the least of which was that Dr. Earl W. sioned by Reagan' s Federal Emergency Justice and vacated Bason's ruling on the Brian was linked with the alleged PROMIS Management Agency (FEMA): The pro- grounds that the case had been heard in the theft. INSLAW alleged that Justice turned gram was so sensitive that when Brooks wrong court. The Supreme Court refused to PROMIS over to Brian, a long-time Reagan asked a question about it during the Iran- review the appellate ruling. (And in the in- friend and former California Secretary of Contra hearings the committee immedi- terim, INSLAW's time to file suit lapsed. Health, for private sale by his company, ately went into a closed secret executive The Rose bill was introduced to set aside Hadron. conference. By using PROMIS, North the appellate ruling by, in effect, rolling Brian had faced similar charges in Cali- could have drawn up lists of anyone ever back the clock on the statute of limitations.) fornia when he acquired 300 reels of the arrested for political protest or who had When Justice refused to pay the damages state's computerized welfare records ever refused to pay taxes or otherwise come ordered by Bason, INSLAW turned to Sen- through a contract arrangement signed dur- under government review. ator Sam Nunn, chairman of the Govern- ing the waning hours of the Reagan gover- Although the Canadian government de- mental Affairs subcommittee on investiga- norship. Robert L. Gnaizda, interim heath nies having PROMIS, court documents in- tions, who ordered his staff to look into the director to then-Governor-elect Jerry clude two letters Canadian government of- matter. The staff reported on September 29, Brown, discovered during a 1975 audit of ficials wrote to INSLAW, requesting 1989, that it could find no evidence of a the Health Department that the tapes were detailed user manuals. (INSLAW officials conspiracy to defraud INSLAW. However, missing. The tapes, he found, had been con- wondered about the request as they had the staff did report that, "The absence of a tracted out to Brian at the University of never sold PROMIS to the government of broad conspiracy within the Department Southern California. Brian decried the Canada.) does not absolve the Department of the se- audit, saying, "The entire matter is a blatant When Congressman Brooks' investiga- rious implications of the Bankruptcy political ploy intended to obfuscate the tors came calling, the CIA also denied hav-

8 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994

._^W WON, 5?- 01,WW•14.:,7r, ing the INSLAW version of PROMIS. that Barcella' s report is a whitewash or that gram to foreign governments after installing However, two years ago, a former top-level he and his investigators were seriously de- a "trap door" that allows U.S. intelligence member of the agency stated privately, "The ceived. It is known that Barcella declined to agencies to monitor information the Congressional committees were after us to interview Brian about his alleged trip to PROMIS software gathers for foreign na- look into allegations that somehow the Paris. tional security agencies. agency had been culpable of what would PLO leader Yasir Arafat confirmed dur- Brooks and Bryant have both said they have been, in essence, taking advantage of, ing a taped interview with this author on want INSLAW to be compensated for losses like stealing, the technology. We looked December 3, 1993, that Reagan campaign and damages or at the very least be provided into it and there was enough to it, the agency functionaries did contact him in October a day in court. Justice says there is nothing had been involved." 1980 about providing introductions to the to argue about because their own investiga- In her attempt to clear Brian, Reno's re- Iranians. The person who contacted Arafat tions have absolved them of culpability. port uses Bua's findings and cites the Senate is believed to have been William Casey, However the box score compiled over the Governmental Affairs subcommittee, which Reagan' s campaign manager who was later past 10 years says that the Senate staff found no evidence of a Brian-Justice-Meese appointed director of the CIA. Court docu- didn't find anything but was blocked by conspiracy. But far from Justice in many of its efforts. being an absolution of Jus- The bankruptcy court found tice, as Bua and Reno have that DOJ stole INSLAW' s portrayed it to be, the Senate software through "trickery, report graphically described fraud and deceit" and the Justice stonewalling and court found much of the tes- speculated about "heavy- timony provided by DOJ handed" tactics against em- employees "suspect" to say ployees. In fact one section the least. When the case was of the report is entitled, appealed to the federal dis- "THE SUBCOMMITTEE trict court, that judge con- EXPERIENCES PROB- curred with the bankruptcy LEMS WITH THE DE- court. The appellate court PARTMENT OF JUS- never disputed the facts or TICE." The staff also findings in the case, only the pointed out that while they jurisdiction of the couldn't find any conclusive bankruptcy court. The evidence of a conspiracy, House Judiciary Committee they were prevented by Jus- found suspicions of wrong- tice from conducting a full doing and has asked for the investigation. appointment of an indepen- During Bua' s questioning dent counsel and, if that is of Brian, the doctor claimed not granted, special legisla- that he had managed to kill a tion to pay INSLAW what story the American Bar As- the court had ordered. sociation Journal was The only reports clearing preparing on INSLAW. An Justice come from within ABA Journal story on IN- the department itself. The SLAW by this author in only opposition to a public 1992 was in fact killed by the airing of the INSLAW affair chairman of the editorial comes from Republicans board, Norton Webster, who whose party was in power at felt there was no INSLAW the time the alleged theft oc- story to write, and that if curred, and the Department printed the story could be of Justice, which remains construed as biased against ALAN POGUE staffed with people Reno de- John Bryant President Reagan. scribes as "dedicated career If the story had run, it professionals" (DCP' s) who would have recounted allegations of Brian's ments in Canada assert that Brian was in were DOJ DCPs while PROMIS was al- possible involvement in the 1980 "October Paris during October 1980, on the same legedly stolen and Reno stands behind her Surprise" during which an agreement al- dates that an agreement between the Reagan DCPs. legedly was reached between functionaries campaign and the Iranians was allegedly Even with the contradictions in the vari- of the Reagan campaign and the Iranian concluded. INSLAW has claimed that these ous reports and the questions which arise government concerning the date of the Ira- connections and allegations require a full about the Department of Justice's conduct nian hostage release. public airing of its claims. as well as questions about the intelligence A joint Congressional task force headed INSLAW has also cited Justice's supply- community and the Reagan campaign of by Lawrence Barcella reported that such an ing the government of Israel with a copy of 1980, it is doubtful if any further investiga- agreement was never made. However, much PROMIS, which Justice claims was the tion will occur if Jack Brooks loses his elec- of the evidence used by the task force has public domain version of the program. But, tion. Or if Brooks wins and the Democrats come under suspicion. This suspicion con- as the Brooks report concludes, Justice con- lose control of the House of Representa- tinues to grow because of information de- siders all versions of PROMIS as public do- tives—making Brooks the ranking minority veloped from unofficial inquiries in Europe main. There has been some speculation and member rather than Chair of the Judiciary and in the Middle East, which suggest either allegations that Justice distributed the pro- Committee. ❑

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 The Bankers' Lament

BY ROBERT BRYCE

ITY THOSE POOR bankers. They NCUA to expand its membership to in- Association (ABA) and five North Car- are coming off a decade in which clude all people over the age of 50 living olina banks in a case involving the expan- p federal taxpayers provided subsi- within 25 miles of the facility. As in the suit sion of the AT&T Family Federal Credit dies worth several hundreds of billions of brought by the North Carolina banks, the Union in Asheboro, North Carolina. Judge dollars. Between April and June of this Texas bankers believe the expansion Pratt determined that while the law was year, they had their second-best quarter in should be disallowed because it violates the "ambiguous," the NCUA's interpretation history, earning $11.2 billion, an increase so-called "common bond" requirement by of the common bond provision was reason- of 8.5 percent over 1993. During the same which credit unions are chartered. able. "Until Congress addresses this mat- period, commercial banks in Texas earned ter," Pratt concluded, "the Court will defer $487 million. Loans are up, failures are N ACHIEVEMENT of the New to the agency's interpretation of the statute down. Consolidation and new interstate Deal, the Federal Credit Union Act at issue." banking laws have provided opportunities Abecame law on June 26, 1934. Spon- Robert Harris, president of the TBA, says for big banks to dominate the business as sored by Wright Patman, the Texarkana Pratt's decision was a setback and the TBA never before. But that isn't quite good Democrat who served 24 consecutive terms is considering what it will do next. "Credit enough. So bankers from Asheboro, North (from 1929 to 1976) in the U.S. House of unions are the only financial services Carolina, to Houston, Texas, have filed a Representatives, the act was amended in the providers that are exempt from federal and series of lawsuits against the National mid-'60s to allow credit unions to provide state taxation," Harris said. "If you have to Credit Union Administration, alleging that deposit accounts and checking services for compete with an entity that is not subject to credit unions are unfairly competing for members. The law restricts credit union federal taxation, there is an obvious com- customers. membership to "groups having a common petitive advantage on deposit and loan side. To get an idea of how much competition bond of occupation or association, or to It's a turf war and what's driving it is the credit unions are giving banks, consider groups within a well-defined neighborhood, issue of taxation." this: The country's 12,733 credit unions community or rural district." But Bob Loftus, a spokesman for the have $301 billion in total assets. The na- Non-profit cooperatives run for the bene- NCUA, says the taxation issue is bogus and tion's 10,715 commercial banks have $3.6 fit of their members, credit unions have that a tax on credit unions wouldn't work trillion in assets. The average credit union their roots in Italy's montes pietatis because the institutions would eliminate has $22 million in assets. The average (poverty banks) of medieval times. Guild- their reserves rather than pay taxes. He calls bank, $336 million. The largest credit based lending institutions that developed in the TBA lawsuit "ongoing whining by union in the country, the Navy Federal several countries gave farmers, blacksmiths banks that credit unions are giving them too Credit Union in Vienna, Virginia, has $8.3 and other tradesmen access to capital. In the much competition. If banks want to com- billion in assets. Bank of America—the mid-1800s, Britain, Germany, Italy and pete with credit unions, let their customers largest bank in the United States—has France all adopted the credit-union con- run the bank. Banks could have the same $146 billion in assets. The three largest cept, which reached Canada in 1900. The advantages that credit unions have if they banks in the United States—Bank of Amer- first credit union in the United States was gave up their profits and stopped paying ica, Chemical Bank and Wells Fargo— established in 1909 in Manchester, New their directors." have more assets than all the country's Hampshire, for French garment workers credit unions combined. unable to get credit at banks. Another was ESPITE BANKS' dominance of the Bank profits are increasing because established about the same time in Boston national market, Michael Crotty, banks are charging individual customers by merchant Edward Filene. Then, credit D the ABA' s deputy general counsel, for everything from the use of cash ma- unions were established in New York, says that "all competition is local." Crotty chines to checking accounts. Since 1983, Rhode Island and North Carolina. says that banks compete against local credit U.S. credit unions' assets have tripled. Over the past few years, credit unions unions and that if "the violations of the Much of the growth can be attributed to have been growing at a rate of approxi- common-bond provision are not stopped, credit unions' lower fees. They usually mately 10 percent a year, while banks have there is no telling the limits of credit union charge a fraction of what commercial banks been struggling to recover from the eco- growth. Every dollar that goes into a credit charge for the same services. nomic disasters of the 1980s. For banks, union is a dollar that doesn't go into the Four lawsuits are currently pending eliminating competition from credit unions banks." against the NCUA. The most recent suit certainly would help profits. On September 23, the ABA filed an ap- was brought by the Texas Bankers Associ- Because the members of Texas Bankers peal in the North Carolina case. Industry ation and five Houston-area banks. They Association (TBA) believe the NCUA's observers are predicting that this case, or are suing over the expansion of the Com- approval of the expansion of the Houston another challenge to the common-bond municators Federal Credit Union, in Hous- credit union violates the common-bond provision, will ultimately be decided by ton, which was given permission by the provision, on July 28 the bankers filed a the Supreme Court. In the meantime, fed- lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washing- eral taxpayers are getting nicked by ton, D.C. Before the suit got very far along, bankers yet again. Since the NCUA is a Austin Chronicle contributing editor Robert the plaintiffs lost an important battle. On federal agency, defendants in the lawsuits Bryce writes on environmental and eco- September 15, U.S. District Judge John H. are represented by attorneys from the De- nomic issues. Pratt ruled against the American Bankers partment of Justice. ❑

10 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994

4100141,`,.t.4, MOLLY IVINS

Right-Wing Stealth that this is what students will be taught. changing family structures by pretending Madison, Wisconsin Same old scare tactics. they don't exist. Removing pictures of pro- Heads up, Texas voters! A slate of stealth They have further taken it into their tiny fessional women from textbooks to substi- candidates is running for the State Board of heads that Goals 2000, the program started tute pictures of professional men is not pro- Education on the Republican ticket. These by George Bush the Elder, is some plot by tecting our children from anything. It's silly. are your basic radical right-wing Christian the federal government to take over educa- So don't forget the down-ballot races on fundamentalists hell-bent on teaching cre- tion. As those who have looked at it know, November 8—unless, of course, you want ationism in biology class. It's one of those Goals 2000 is an effort to set high educa- the school curriculum and textbooks dic- deals where we all end up looking like id- tional standards with implementation left tated by folks with a fundamentalist reli- iots if enough of us don't pay attention to an entirely at the local level. If Texas rejects gious agenda. obscure down-ballot race. the grant money that comes from the pro- Think back to the time we elected the gram, we'll be cutting ourselves off from AM EVERYWHERE asked about our wrong Don Yarbrough to the Texas Supreme millions of dollars to improve our schools. Texas governor's race, much less often Court, the occasion on which we put a dead The Republican Board of Education can- I about our Senate race. I'm resigned to person in the Senate and all the years we didates' support is coming from the usual the re-election of Senator Kay Bailey voted for Jesse James because his name was coalition of flakes—the Eagle Forum, the Hutchison, but I think the Legislature will so funny. It's that kind of deal. If we let these American Family Association, CARE, etc. have to pass a law saying that no woman home-schoolers take over the public schools, over 50 from our state is allowed to wear we're going to regret it; not only will the kids Peter Pan collars in public. What she chooses to wear in the privacy of her own suffer, but we're bound to lose droves of Resolved: No woman good teachers, too. We can live with the home is her affair entirely, but I fear Texas snide remarks from late-show jokers and the will not be taken seriously if our senator the skits on "Saturday Night Live," but the over 50 is allowed to Breck Girl keeps dressing like Alice in schools happen to be at stake, too. Wonderland. I'm not advocating that she Texas Republicans bear a particular re- wear Peter Pan become macho and wear leather cowboy sponsibility in this regard. I know those clothes or anything drastic. Pink is fine with now running the state party are officially collars in public. me; just no Peter Pan, no ruffled pinafores, endorsing the Republican slate for Board of OK? Education, but I rather suspect that many of Keeping one's eye on the old ball in a po- them think, as JFK once said, that "some- As a rather basic test, we can assume that litical year this weird is even harder than times party loyalty asks too much." I also those who are supporting home schooling usual. "God, guns and gays" are popular is- understand that many on the Christian right and the voucher system to pay for private sues in Oklahoma and have, of course, abso- entirely endorse the ideas of the home- schools probably do not have the best inter- lutely nothing to do with why the political schoolers and all those moronic, endless ests of the public schools at heart. system is such a mess. Exactly the kind of textbook censorship fights for which Texas The Texas State Teachers Association "hot-button" issues that campaign consul- is so famous. You suburban Bush Republi- and the other established education groups tants like to find and push that are com- cans are going to be royally embarrassed by are trying to got out word on how flaky pletely beside the point when it comes to this crowd. Should Shrub Bush win the some of these candidates are. I fully agree why the middle class is, getting shafted. governorship, which is quite possible, I se- that much of the education establishment Money, as usual, is the root of all evil, and riously doubt you want him saddled with needs to be shaken up or given the old politicians continue to dance with them what this collection of dingbats on the State heave-ho, but the teachers themselves are brung 'em. This was crudely spelled out to a Board of Education. still the heroes of the system, and they're group of Washington lobbyists last week by There are 15 members on the board, and appalled by this bunch. House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich. three or four of them are already fundamen- One of the oldest educational maxims Why the national press corps failed to set talists; six more will give them an easy ma- holds, "It's not what you think, but how off bells and whistles and send up flares jority. Responsible Republicans should you think" that matters. It's interesting that when the Gingrich story appeared is be- cross over at the bottom of the ballot, and one of the education reforms that most yond me; maybe they just don't get it ei- responsible Democrats should make sure grates the fundamentalist candidates is the ther. Gingrich told the lobbyists (and note, they get down that far. effort to teach critical thinking. this is the way politicians really talk to lob- You can tell what's at stake here by the They are apparently prepared to reverse byists when they're not on the record) that level of deceptiveness in the campaigns the maxim and teach students what to think the Republicans had saved them from the being run by the Christian right. "Do you without teaching them how to think. Wrap- "Stalinist" anti-lobbying measures pro- want your children taught about HOMO- ping themselves in the flags of patriotism, re- posed by the Democrats—bills that would SEXUALITY?" inquire their false and mis- spect for authority and chastity until mar- have forced lobbyists to disclose their ac- leading brochures. They quote out of con- riage, these candidates imply that they are all tivities and would have shut down the prac- text from the teachers' editions of some that is standing between us and condom-dis- tice of lobbyists' paying for golfing trips board-approved health textbooks and imply tributing promoters of mad promiscuity and and tennis jaunts and "fact-finding" mis- homosexuality. I wish I knew what it is about sions in the Bahamas in winter. And Gin- sex that reduces so many people to gibbering grich expects some generous contributions Molly Ivins, a former Observer editor, is a buffoons. We cannot protect our children from those same said lobbyists in exchange columnist with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. from drugs, AIDS, homosexuality and for killing those terrible bills. ❑

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11 JIM HIGHTOWER

NAFTA Shams ness with corporate power. If you're one, write them at P.O. Box 380, We know that a corporation's political Long Island, New York 11975. You can Here's a trick question: What word actually action committee can legally put $10,000 join up for free, and you can even buy a T- two letters to it? becomes shorter if you add into the pocket of a lawmaker, but that's shirt featuring a sharpened, No. 2 yellow Give up? Short! chump change to executives and politicians pencil emblazoned with this excellent ques- Here's another: What international trade who really know how to play the game. tion: "What's the hurry?" deal makes America weaker if you add two Consider two top-ranking congressmen: Everyone from Al Gore to your local side agreements to it? NAFTA—the North Republican leader Newt "The Newt" Gin- cable TV owner is pushing to get us all on American Free Trade Agreement. grich, and Democratic majority leader Dick that interactive, intergalactic, fiber optic In- The dirty trick in NAFTA was the envi- Gephardt. Both have established what are formation Superhighway from hell, rushing ronmental and job-loss problems that ev- called "leadership PACs," to which corpo- us pell-mell to—well, to where? eryone knew would be caused by this cor- rations wanting favors from Congress are The multibillion-dollar mega-corpora- porate boondoggle. So to paper over the invited to contribute wheelbarrows full of tions driving this thing talk about connecting problems, labor and environmental "side cash. Sixteen of Newt's givers, for exam- us to all sorts of razzle-dazzle, such as elec- agreements" were stuck onto the deal— ple, are in for more than $100,000 each, tronic town meetings, without going to town kind of like chrome on an old Buick. As we with one topping half a million. or meeting anyone; buying groceries or gold learned in October, these side deals were *Gephardt has also hauled in millions, rings without ever rising from our La-Z- shams designed to make NAFTA look some from the same executives who give to Boys; and don't go to the doctor—just tune good enough for Congress to buy it, but be Newt—you see, it's all one big party in the in video diagnosis: "If you're experiencing useless when it came time to deliver any- inner sanctums; just leave your political mild pain, touch one; severe pain, touch thing. In its first test case, the NAFTA side registration, your scruples—and your two; pants-wetting pain, touch three..." agreement on labor proved as effective as a cash—at the door. Notice that while all this razzle-dazzle Jello doorstop at stopping unfair labor prac- Gephardt specializes in vacation retreats connects us electronically, it disconnects us tices. Being paid barely a dollar an hour, for his corporate givers. Last winter, for ex- from each other, having us "interfacing" workers at both a GE and a Honeywell ample, wealthy businessmen could buy into more with computers and TV screens than plant in Mexico tried to organize, only to be four days of skiing, gourmet meals, sleigh looking in the faces of our fellow human fired. They protested under NAFTA, but rides and up-close schmoozing at a Col- beings. Is this progress? the corporations argued that the side agree- orado resort with Dick. As a Seattle ship- It's not that us Lead Pencil Clubbers action not ment only applies to government ping executive put it, "It was a chance to are against high-tech, but that we'd like it to corporate practices .Washington agreed get some quality time with the congress- to add to our quality of life, rather than with this toothless interpretation—giving man." And to get some favors too: a few subtract. ❑ workers the SHAFTA. weeks later, this executive's bill to subsi- Meanwhile, on the pollution front, both dize his shipping business steamed right U.S.- and Mexican-owned factories in through the Congress. Mexico are creating a toxic nightmare all Gephardt says his little vacation get- along our border. So where's the NAFTA Statement of Ownership. aways are "a way to keep in touch. It's kind . Management end - Circulation agency that was supposed to deal with this? 1NORM of like a family gathering." (fsguied by 39 U.S.C. 3685) IA Or 74 INN* IA TVOLICATION NO No 0646 Nowhere. It's not even staffed, though U.S. The Texas Observer Yeah, Gephardt and Gingrich gather up • °I°1 1.1"1 5 19 ILIT 30.199k A ANNNos, Mir and Mexico officials already have quietly Biweekly except for a three-week interval ' ' ‘. ."*".." the contributions, corporations put the between lemma in January and Joiy 25 $32.00 agreed to rules severely restricting your and A CALL0N. A•eitas 0 IONA, oven. PLY* caw, 7..717..,..- 3...... o., • . ONN AN 'NAN. touch on us taxpayers—and your family 307 07001•917► St.; 0011till. Trevi•, Texas 78701-2917 my participation in the agency's pollution . CANN. MA, A..0 and mine get stiffed. To find out who else is 307 that 7th St., avoids, Traele, Texas 78701-2917 c Pm on....a omen.. IA., me.. d nano.. tem.,. tomme tee am cm w.f.". tom cases and allowing the agency to make its on the take, contact the Center for Respon- NY.. 64.•• ...f [.....• MAI, AYALA Geoffrey Ripe, 307 feat 7th St., Auntie, Texaa 98701-2919 decisions behind closed doors. sive Politics on 202-857-0044. Pow 0.• 4.4 04,44, 0.0.4..4....., Having lied to us about NAFTA, Wash- Toole Dube., 307 West 7th St., 496u6, Texas 78701-2917 ington is now trying to trick us into taking atm 0alor W ...ay •1,...114, • • oar ••• I ale mato • *a r• .4 dz. NA... •••••*14.• agno. awl .0..0n Al areirli. own, 4* •••■•• ✓ Roadkill on the Infobahn := ...... n:pww.i.. 7 4 ..:4‘ !' rt%:.===" '-'1171:1t='-'77.7.4"47.4".„::...... '"":` another, even bigger trade scam called ...... "*. .4. rod, 6...... I. .... :NnIo N ..,. C....0.• .411...... The Tabu Discorso, fottedatica 707 Want 7th St 01771701. Taxa. 78701-2917 GATT—which simply means "Gotcha High-tech is threatening to overwhelm us. A 1 ithaliD00fithbilkinfitali-- Again." When you hear their promises about lady gave a ballpoint pen to her six-year-old a an...... o. Yowl, and 0.4 Sonny M.M. 0...... • NOS. I TorteN IA NAN 0 A. Anna0 a... ALAN.. or OW, Sows.. W 0TmL1.11 ., ...... GATT, remember their lies about NAFTA. son. He examined it for about a minute, then CANNALTL VANN. •■•••■ said: "OK, I give up. How do you turn it on?" ANNA

Congressional I'm doomed, old before my time. I'm 1 TN CLANNINA IN NAN0AN 0.007No. AN *. To INN IX x7106 Nor CNN Le. 04 I) a. 71,• ww.••...... a. LANNINA TLTAIL 0 INN Lew icrtLn AN NA TLANN NANA N. 0.1AN Amu. 1•• NAN* RNA 0.0 01 111 Money Game electronically impaired, computer-chal- O WL Nol CL=....1700a 000 On": = =Teo 7 zyLOTT N=7; INAN. AN7LAM. 4 PS 110. 70I WAAL 0 CANANALL ANN. Ow Comm tab Nom No, ALA. NA Coe..NON* Nem lenged and digitally disabled. The "note- ON.NorrILAT L. NANA Wel 1.N..1. IS WA. •LeANALI Nosnol Al • D.N. Ever so rarely, one of the secret doors to the A. TIAN AN Cops NT Alm b,I 6,126 8,000 a PIM 7.0/0 ALNANANAI 0■07•00 book" I use for writing is not a Power- I. II* Name. A*. ■■•• WALLA L•NALLI 0.11001 1. LLIAL 294 206 inner sanctums of Washington will inad- 7 NM OLANNYIN. , book—it's one made of paper, actual ...IAA. AT.T.TO 5,211 7,104 c_ 1.01 VALI ANA. A.Nreorl 07700.an vertently slip open just a crack, giving us 0•■• 41,0114•I MP 5.1505 7.510 paper! Ooohhh, I'm going to be roadkill on ' "...1.0.,'""..•"...... !••"' •• ":'.":".=7 = 90 55 peasants a peek at Congress' whorish cozi- II 770111..ANNLA 0..4 Cr Os the Information Superhighway. 5.595 7,565 A Cop0.011017•011 I. VAN OM . INV. YONNWOd. MS.. OM 01.... 246 221

Well as Patrick Henry put it: "I know not ,. .4.. 4*.4.1we Agiont 235 216 Observer editor and what course others may take, but as for me, 0. TOTAL 0.../1. /10.47-0.710..1 LA pm AN... A AI 6,126 8,660 Jim Hightower, a former it ...... t artily Met dr namments mode .., . Texas agriculture commissioner, does daily give me liberty or give me...The Lead Pen- tr. above ate cone. and templets 7.= en, r Pt Mn tocttemmn LA ANNA) radio commentary and a weekend call-in talk cil Club." 3521. nem, ten show on the ABC Radio Network. At last, a club for us cyberspace rejects.

12 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994

4.0, • brkh• , POTOMAC OBSERVER

The Conpress of Business/ So where it counts immediately, on the cannot be overestimated. Liberal Demo- The Business of Congress Supreme Court, Bill has done what the cratic policies, if we were abler than at pre- businessmen would like him to have done: sent to find very many politicians to es- Washington, D.C. "Please, no 'flame-throwing' civil liber- pouse them, would result in a more You gotta hand it to the business types. tarians or 'wild-eyed' economic justice economically equitable, therefore more sta- They've been getting all they want from crusaders." ble, society; and lower military, thus less Bill Clinton and the national Democrats. A But that's not enough for the business wasteful, public spending. These are both big story in the Washington Post recently types, apparently. They want some guaran- preconditions to sustained and sustainable listed the major business wins in the 103rd tees that none of the newest federal Circuit economic growth, from which businessmen Congress: passing interstate banking and Court or Court of Appeals judges are dan- would profit; for the essence of a military- NAFTA legislation while killing health gerously in favor of the people or, even spending-driven economy as perfected care reform, campaign finance reform, the more recklessly, not automatically dis- under Reagan and Bush is that economic BTU energy consumption tax, the prohibi- posed to treat corporations as the highest growth is neither constant nor continuous. tion of replacement workers, and the eco- form of American life. And there are no Yet liberal Democrats are called "waste- nomic stimulus package. such guarantees as to the Clinton appoint- ful" despite the fact that they would remedy But guess what? They still don't like ei- ments to the lower courts, since they are so flagrant and persistent public ills. Our na- ther Bill or the Congressional Democrats. diverse and, well, so Democratic. tion is busily abandoning 25 percent of our They want representatives who don't just do Of course, most of Clinton's judges will families without health insurance, the aver- what they're told, but who do it without turn -out to be middle-of-the-road supporters age wage has been falling for more than a being told. Kind of like Everyteen's fantasy of the status quo. After all, they're all decade, and the only remaining component sexual partner. lawyers. "Radical lawyer," these days, is of the Soviet military threat is the opposing So the business types, on the whole, are about as much a contradiction in terms as apparatus we continue to maintain. And supporting Republicans. Business donations "Kay Bailey's compassion," "Phil Gramm' s nothing the Republicans have suggested to Democrats are way down from where conscience," or "Jeb Bush's intelligence." will do anything about any of that except they were in 1992. The nasty Clinton jokes A recent Associated Press headline was make it worse. continue to be repeated in country clubs and "White Men Vote Republican." The story It is ironic that Democrats are judged on at Lions, Moose, Elks, Rotary and Junior noted that Shrub Bush held a 30-percent their rhetoric, which is far more egalitarian Achievement functions everywhere. lead over Ann Richards among white and reformist than their practices; while the If businessmen were as hard-eyed realists males, though she has substantial strength Republicans are judged on their behavior, as they like to claim, they would be sup- among GOP women. And it is here that the which is much more punitive than their ide- porting Democratic incumbents and the small business, corporate and country club ology. Some observers have noted that the President with not just money but volun- ethic stands revealed. These guys are so in- imminent collapse of the conservative wing teers, all produced with enthusiasm. But the secure they can't imagine anyone who of the Democratic party is a natural conse- businessmen seem to want, not palatable wasn't in their fraternity being able to lead. quence of the two-party system in the results, but absolute control. But the need Partially this is a long-term trend. Lyn- South, and the resultant dedication of Re- for absolute control is a pathological psy- don B. Johnson, for all his personal pathol- publicans to racially divisive policies need chic state, not a precondition of success. ogy, led the party and the nation on civil surprise no one. Maybe business's Clinton problem is what rights. Half the South, starting with the sub- If the polls are to be believed, even with Leonard Cohen' s song "Sisters of Mercy" urbs, promptly seceded—first to George the rebounding Democratic prospects, we diagnosed as having to "leave everything Wallace, then to the Republicans. Lyndon are about to enter the Gridlock-Squared that you cannot control." simultaneously tried to buy off the Republi- Congress, the 104th, in which conservative Judges wholly complaisant to business cans and conservatives by holding an anti- Southern Democrats join with Republicans arguments were almost invariably ap- communist war for them. They grudgingly in blocking not only any legislation not ap- pointed by Reagan and Bush, and some- supported it, but not him. proved by the Fortune 500 but, no doubt, times Carter, who between them appointed In a certain way, every Democratic mi- judicial and executive appointments. We a vast majority of the federal judiciary. nority candidate—whether woman, Latino will hear a lot less about the President's Clinton has sent up the most diverse set of or black—by her or his very presence re- prerogative to appoint whom he likes than judges of any of his predecessors—more minds the business types that the Demo- we did under Reagan and Bush. women, more blacks, more Hispanics, than cratic party's mandate is not always ruled Still, even if the most wretchedly conser- even Carter managed, or than Reagan/Bush by the corporate ledger. And this is a scary vative Democratic Congressperson is likely ever dreamed of. thought to those who frequently explain to vote only one extra time in favor of the Yet his two Supreme Court appointments, stock market declines with the astonishing, President's policies, he or she is a better deal Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, though frequently repeated, observation than even the most moderate of Republi- are only considered "economic liberals" by that "the market was hurt today by uncer- cans—if there were any, the howls of the Re- the terminally squint-minded. On business tainty about the future." I was taught that ligious Reicht to the contrary notwithstand- issues, each has a history more in tune with the only certainties everyone must endure ing. The unsavory alliance among business, the Fortune 500 than with your friendly are death, taxes and the counsel of the bore. conservatives and the suburban and trailer- local wage-earner, possibly even including I suppose that's why I'm merely an inad- park televangelized masses may yet fall yourself and certainly including me. vertent businessman: The only things in the apart of its own weight. But its further solid- future I'm not uncertain about are things ification can be delayed, and possibly even James McCarty Yeager edits Minority Busi- I'm in no hurry to confront. prevented, by a few well-placed votes. ness Report in Bethesda, Maryland. The short-sightedness of U.S. business — JAMES MCCARTY YEAGER

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 LAS AMERICAS On the Run in Guatemala

BY GUY LAWSON

T WAS 6:30 IN the morning, and I was I turned back around to watch the treeline. But they organized, and learned that by already drenched with sweat. We had If the soldiers came through ... would we working together they could share the neces- I been slogging our way through the run? I looked at my watch; it was 8:04 a.m. sary tasks for survival. They maintained con- dense jungle on narrow, muddy trails for I have been living with the Communities stant surveillance and developed temporary about 45 minutes on our way to the day's of Population in Resistance in the Ixcan camps that could be abandoned in less than work site. No one spoke, but the jungle pro- jungle of Guatemala. The Communities of 20 minutes. All cooking was done and fires vided a symphony of sound. Population in Resistance (CPR) was born extinguished before sunrise so that the We tramped on for a half an hour more out of the brutal "scorched earth" campaign army's helicopters couldn't spot the smoke before emerging into a clearing, and into conducted conducted in the early 1980's by rising up through the trees and call in air the full light of day. The men had come the successive military dictatorships of strikes. By 5 a.m. all possessions had to be here three weeks ago and slashed and Gen. Romeo Lucas Garcia, 1978-83, and packed and ready to go at a moment's notice. burned about three acres of jungle for plant- Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, 1982-83. [In re- During military offensives in their areas, ing. The clearing climbed up a small hill cent congressional elections, Rios Montt the CPR was sometimes forced to flee and and went down the other side where it was elected to the congress and his right- relocate as many as 15 times a month. The ended in a solid wall of green jungle. wing party won approximately 30 percent army burned their crops and their commu- The men went to work sharpening the of the vote.] Entire villages of men, women nities, and destroyed or stole any posses- points of the sticks they would use for plant- and children were murdered, sometimes sions left behind. But the CPR always man- ing. I was to act as look-out with Vicente. burned alive, by the army. Their remains aged to stay together and start anew. We climbed to the top of the hill and posi- were buried in hundreds of clandestine The CPR has developed highly organized, tioned ourselves to watch the far treeline. cemeteries that dot the Guatemalan land- democratic, and self-governing communi- I asked Vicente how his wife was. They scape. Human rights groups claim that ties based on collective work. The men farm had just lost their 5-year-old son a few days more than 400 villages were destroyed dur- communal fields, and the production is dis- back. One day the child. was fine, and the ing this period. The army's rationale was tributed equally among the population. next he developed a very high fever. By the that the population provided the base for Collective production has also allowed end of the day he was dead. the growing guerrilla movement. Their the CPR to provide a number of basic ser- I don't remember what Vicente's answer strategy was to "remove the water from vices. Each community has school from was. around the fish," thereby killing the fish. kindergarten through fourth grade. Com- The first mortar round fell about 150 me- The water, in this case, was tens of thou- munity members have trained their own ters away. The explosion was deafening, sands of unarmed men, women and chil- teachers and developed their own curricu- and I felt the ground vibrating beneath me dren, mostly indigenous campesinos. lum. All children go to school and learn, with the shock. I looked at my watch: 7:41 Hundreds of thousands of people were among other things, reading, writing, math, a.m., May 31, 1994. As the second round forced to flee from their homes. Many history and ecology. fell,- there was a burst of machine-gun fire. thousands crossed the border into Mexico Each community has a clinic and its own The battle was taking place in the jungle to and became refugees. Thousands more fled trained health promoters. Carlos, a pro- the south of us, but stray bullets were cross- to the urban centers of Guatemala. Some moter in the community of San Luis, in- ing the field. chose a different path. They remained hid- formed me that promoters treat a variety of Vicente and I looked for cover. We found den in areas outside of the military's con- illnesses by combining natural remedies, a hole big enough for both of us, left by the trol: in the highlands, in the Ixcan, and in Western medicine, and even acupuncture. roots of a fallen tree. We lay there peering the northern jungles of the Peten. These When I left the communities in early Au- over the edge, watching the treeline. If the people, unarmed civilians, who have spent gust, some promoters were learning to soldiers came through, we would have to the past 12 years in hiding, defending their make and fit dentures. run. I was scared. land by their presence, have come to be The CPR has its own human rights net- The battle went on for about 20 minutes. known as the CPR. work that provides workshops on human Then, as suddenly as it started, it ended. I At times, the army, which claims that rights and how to defend them. There are climbed out of my hole and looked back over they are part of the armed guerrilla move- youth groups, women's groups and an or- the other side of the hill. The men had already ment, has pursued them relentlessly with ganization of catechists that provides reli- begun planting. They worked their way across air raids and military incursions. "We suf- gious services. the field side by side in a row: solidarity. fered a great deal at the beginning," recalls Once a year a General Assembly is held Francisco, a community leader in the CPR- in which all of the communities come to- Ixcan. "We were very hungry, and there gether. For two days, the work of elected Guy Lawson is a graduate student at the was no food. We learned to eat many dif- leaders and the performance of the various University of Texas in Austin who spent the ferent kinds of roots, berries and leaves. services are evaluated, plans are set for the summer as a human rights observer in the Many of our children died from sicknesS coming year, and new leaders are elected. community of San Luis in Ixcan, Guatemala. and hunger." Majority vote wins, but more emphasis is

14 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994 placed on reaching consensus through open in early May, soldiers approached to within guerrillas in the area. discussion than on imposing decisions by 20 minutes from the community of San The army's strategy was adopted follow- majority rule. Luis. Several shots were fired and the popu- ing the signing of a Global Human Rights This level of self-government has been lation was on the verge of evacuating when Accord between the government, the mili- achieved in spite of constant military re- the soldiers turned back. tary and the URNG on March 29, 1994, and pression, and the refusal of the government The army maintains a hostile, threatening the preliminary visit to discuss setting up a to recognize the CPR as civilian. Army posture towards the CPR and the refugees UN Commission to verify compliance with press releases often refer to the CPR as who have returned from Mexico. In May, the Accord. The Commission was approved "Communities of Population in Retention," the army established a new base 4 kilome- by the UN in September and has not begun implying that the CPR is being forcibly held ters from San Luis. They destroyed several full operations. But human rights violations by the Guatemalan National Revolutionary acres of beans and corn, and stole the com- have increased at an alarming rate. Bodies Unity (URNG, an armed guerrilla organiza- munity's tools and possessions. They halted are appearing almost daily in Guatemala tion). The army maintains a tight military river traffic and made it impossible for resi- City, often with visible signs of torture. cordon around the area that the CPR occu- dents of San Luis to harvest what was left of On August 4, the URNG announced that pies in the Ixcan, located in the northern part their crop. Boatmen from San Luis were ac- it would suspend any further peace negotia- of the Quiche department on the border with cused of ferrying guerrilla troops and sup- tions until the UN Commission becomes a the Mexican state of Chiapas; eight bases plies. A boatman from Victoria 20 de Enero reality. The action has allowed the army to surround an area of approximately 22 was temporarily detained on June 1, ac- claim that the guerrillas are not interested in square kilometers. a negotiated settlement. In an Au- During the XIII General Assem- gust 19 article published in the bly in August 1993, the CPR de- Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre, cided to come out from the shad- Defense Minister Mario Enriquez ows of the jungle and form open was quoted saying, "What is nec- communities. Several factors essary is understanding at an in- played into this decision. On Jan- ternational level so that friendly uary 20, 1993, the first organized countries realize who has the real return of Guatemalan refugees' political will to end the armed from Mexico took place. Some conflict; is it the government or 2,500 refugees returned to the the URNG?" Ixcan and founded the community In statements made three days Victoria 20 de Enero. With them earlier, Enriquez had cautioned came increased international atten- that if the URNG was not willing tion. Also influencing the decision to negotiate, the army would fin- was the installation of former ish the guerrillas off by force. In Human Rights Ombudsman the August 19 article, he warned Ramiro de Leon Carpio as presi- that "the offeniive capacity of the dent of Guatemala. As Human army was demonstrated in 1980- Rights Ombudsman, Carpio visited 82 when there was the need to the CPR in February 1991, when confront the insurgency when it he witnessed firsthand that they was at its strongest." The 1980-82 were a civilian population. With offensive is the same "scorched his inauguration, there was hope earth" campaign that resulted in that the CPR would receive recog- massive displacement of popula- nition as a civilian population. GUY LAWSON Children at Play in San Luis tion and the massacres of thou- Instead, Carpio has taken a sands of civilians. much harder line with the CPR, demanding cused of similar activities, and his life was So this story does not have a happy end- that they recognize the authority of the gov- threatened. ing. In the week before, I left the Ixcan can- ernment and all of its institutions, including The army abandoned the base on June 24, nons and machine guns were fired all night, the army. The CPR responded by agreeing but returned two weeks later, to occupy an every night. It is difficult to say whether to recognize any legal authority acting area 10 kilometers to the south near the col- there were battles taking place, or if the within the constraints of the Guatemalan lective fields of Los Altos. In the days be- army was just firing off rounds into the jun- Constitution, effectively denying recogni- fore I left in early August, there were reports gle. (It is suggested that they fire at nothing tion of the army and the Civil Defense Pa- of army troops moving back to reoccupy the in order to say they are being attacked, trols (PAC). Negotiations broke down there. abandoned base. thereby justifying their presence.) Nevertheless, the plan to come out into A recent report by the Center for Human The communities that I spent the past the open continued, and the date was set for Rights Legal Action (CHRLA), a Washing- three and a half months with, the Communi- February 2, 1994. The seven communities ton-based human rights organization, points ties of Population in Resistance, are in great of the Ixcan would form five public and out that the army is employing a "dual strat- danger. They are completely surrounded by open settlements and request the presence egy" in the Ixcan. The goals of this dual an army that is threatening to invade their of national and international observers. The strategy are: 1) to present a new image of settlements. The CPR consists of organized, people, who had lived for years under plas- the army as one that respects human rights truly democratic, civilian communities. But tic tarps, would construct houses, schools, and protects the civilian population and 2) at all of the organization and democracy in the and clinics. the same time to distort the reality of who is world cannot stop thousands of well-armed February 2 was the "Salido al Claro" or is not "civilian population." Additionally, soldiers and I wonder if the open settle- (Coming into the Open). Since then there army propaganda often exaggerates the con- ments will be abandoned and their residents have been no airstrikes, shellings or incur- flictive nature of the zone. By the army's forced back into hiding under the trees again sions into the new settlements. Only once, own estimates, there are no more than 250 before this year ends.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Howl

BY ANN WALTON SIEBER THE ZOO WHERE YOU'RE Moan," forever changed the way I thought leads him to the zoo leads him to the tiger FED TO GOD. about Elvis Presley and, indeed, all of rock leads him to the girl.) Lee is another zoo By Michael Ventura. `n' roll) and last year's Letters at 3 a.m. In weirdo, as she calls it, a free-spirited yet 255 pp. New York: 1992 he collaborated with psychologist troubled young punk who sleeps with most Simon & Schuster. $21. James Hillman on a series of free-ranging anyone who asks and sings folk songs to conversations that, although speckled with the animals. When she sees James crying N MICHAEL VENTURA'S wild and interesting ideas, probably would not have while watching the delicate deer-like woolly philosophical essays, a recurring found its way into book form were it not for geruniks, and follows him to the tiger cage, I theme is the need to plunge into the less the name recognition of the authors. where she sings "Danny-Boy" to him, and controlled, less exposed parts of the psy- In The Zoo Where You're Fed to God, the friendship begins. Two lost and trou- che: as teenagers undergoing tribal initia- Ventura's main character, surgeon James bled souls cling to each other, at times, lit- tions, as jazz and rock musicians carrying Abbey, finds himself in one of those situa- erally, as in various disturbed states they on the torch of a buried tribal religious im- tions so popular among writers of fiction: a stumble arm in arm around the zoo. pulse, as an entire culture on the brink of ri- Turning Point. James' wife has recently left otous apocalyptic collapse. (Mind you, ri- him after many years of marriage and we ROM ODYSSEUS to Dorothy, it's an otous apocalyptic collapse isn't all bad to can see why. Distracted, absent, unfocused, old theme, even archetypal, the Michael Ventura.) Ventura loves to concoct he seems to drift through life on a philo- Fseeker's journey to far-off lands—be modem applications of primal rituals like sophical cloud. Now, alone in his big it an actual trip, or a journey into mad- voodoo and Australian dreamtime. In his house, his son living with his ex-wife and ness—to find oneself. But in Zoo, it feels second novel, The Zoo Where You're Fed barely wanting to talk to him, James can't minor and rather predictable. James takes a to God, Ventura continues these shadowy sleep and he's really losing it. He sits night short trip and really doesn't get too far— explorations, as his protagonist, a middle- after night in his kitchen with the lights out. perhaps to leave something for books two aged quiet-but-deep type, nervously flirts However, without realizing it, James is and three. A book of modest length, for a with madness—finally deciding oh-what- making himself available to what Ventura novel, Zoo seems to have the content of a the-hell, the world has pretty sketchy re- calls Possibility. A coyote comes close to chapter, despite the fact that (or perhaps be- quirements when it comes to sanity any- the house, and this, oddly, compels James cause) James "crosses a line," or has way. As he says to his teenage son's to go to the zoo. Much further down his "defining moments" every dozen pages. therapist, "Am I crazy, Dr. Benjamin? Al- path toward enlightenment—or endarken- The old writing-teacher's saw warns "show right, I am. For now. But—I can't think of a ment, to use Ventura's own language— don't tell," but Ventura loves to tell, which reason not to be. I honestly cannot." James understands that the coyote would is what makes him an essayist. In his con- Although Ventura might be better known not have approached a lit house. You have voluted style, he draws lots of bells and for his screenplays for Echo Park and to be willing to sit with the dark forces sub- whistles and arrows around his character's Roadie, as the LA Weekly's chronicler of merged in your soul—get it, get it?—even epiphanies. (For instance: "these two peo- the counter-cultural temperature for 15 if you're scared of them. Indeed, that's how ple had left the world that calls itself 'the years and one of the alternative paper's the book begins, "He turned off all the world,' though they seemed to be moving founding editors, essays have been the meat lights in the house because he was afraid of within it: they cared neither about avoiding and potatoes of his writing output. Last the dark." pain nor inflicting it; they cared only about year, when LA Weekly editor Kit Rachlis The zoo becomes James' gateway to in- how one moment's beauty demands audac- was fired, Ventura was part of the contin- sight—all those animals to lead him back to ity in order to lead to the next moment's gent that walked out in protest. Ventura's his native wisdom—and the tiger is his beauty; and they cared about nothing, when now splitting his time between LA and main guide. (The book is intended as the together, but fulfilling the demands of that Austin, and the Austin Chronicle has be- first in a trilogy, called The Tiger, the Rock audacity.") come the host paper for his biweekly col- and the Rose.) Ventura the essayist is also very much umn, "Letters at 3 a.m.," which is carried James starts hearing the tiger's voice, present in the thought processes of his pro- on and off by about a dozen papers nation- giving him cryptic instructions reminiscent tagonist, and although the story is told in wide and is semi-frequently reprinted in of the talking billboard in LA Story, or what the third person, at times it takes the form various alternative publications such as the was told to Kevin Costner' s character in of a stream-of-conciousness narrative. Es- Utne Reader or the Whole Earth Review. Field of Dreams: "If you build it, he will says that continue for paragraphs are obvi- Ventura's essays have been collected come." James' tiger says things like "Re- ously interior monologues and are inter- into the 1985 Shadow Dancing in the USA main," "Return," "I am your help," "Take rupted now and then when they find their (its anchor essay, "Hear That Long Snake the help that's offered, or be lost." way to the surface in the form of a sentence The tiger seems to be steering James to- or two of dialogue. Dialogue, the world of ward a meeting with Lee. (Like some psy- the surface and the seen, is not uppermost Ann Walton Sieber is a freelance writer in chic treasure hunt—with lots of interesting in Ventura's concerns, but instead what Houston. animal trivia along the way—the coyote James describes as "something both

16 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994 sweeter and darker." cool spray, he knew that everything beyond strength, a quality of will which, more than Zoo is definitely an interior book, a words had somehow taken a step toward the colors, made them attractive." The same dreamy book, moody that induces a sort of him." Although Zoo has moments of clarity, could be said of Ventura's novel—despite its emotional vertigo. Not the book to read if moments of successful poetry, Ventura's howl for primalism and "everything beyond you're a little tenuous about reality yourself. essays give more payback. words," it is really quite willed. And this Michael Ventura is also odd; in essay after willed writing, in the final analysis, works ICHAEL VENTURA is a writer essay he has laid out his "street kid" begin- better in that willed form, the essay, than in whose digressions into triviality nings, and can write about them movingly, that flow of imagination, the novel. ❑ Mand self importance are usually even if there is a touch of strutting, of "I'm balanced by the freshness and vigorous "au- the real article," of anti-intellectualism. In dacity" of his insights. The novel form does Zoo, he describes the canvases of James' ex- Send the Observer to a Friend. not serve him well, and in Zoo, he can get wife: "Yet for all their movement and energy For a Free Copy, Write 307 W. pretty heavy-handed, with unfortunate ob- they were intellectual. Willed. It was almost 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701 or call servations like, "In the shower, under its as though that was their point and their 512-477-0746.

Plight of Eagles

BY DARVYN SPAGNOLLY

TWO EAGLES: The Natural World of symbolism of both Mexico and the United the pictures. Steinhart's musings, some- the United States-Mexico Borderlands. States, are a high point among high points: times thoughtful, sometimes pedantic in a Photographs by Tupper Ansel Blake. An immature bird in its rough nest of twigs, National - Geographic - with- an - axe - to - grind Text by Peter Steinhart. its wings slightly blurred in motion, is a way, can be out of synch with the photogra- 256 pp. Berkeley, California: particularly striking example of Blake's art. phy. His essay on the desert regions begins University of California Press/ The landscapes are occasionally too im- and ends with endangered bats, but there The Nature Conservancy. $55. posing. There are a number of sunsets and are no bat pictures. There is a striking pic- storm-cloud-laden summer skies, perhaps ture of "forb-covered dunes" but no accom- HE INTENTION behind Two Eagles too over-beautified for a book that bends panying explanation of what forb is. He is to show the area of the American- over backwards, in Steinhart's text, to dis- does give useful historical background and T Mexican border not as the dull, dusty abuse us of our cultural prejudices towards provides some interesting observations, but waste it is popularly imagined to be, but as nature. But this is more than compensated they could probably be summarized enough a place rich in wildlife and opulent land- by photographs that integrate the animals to leave space for the forb. scapes. The result is a stunning book, in the and their environments, such as an aerial He also seems a little too eager to inter- impact of its beautifully printed pho- view of pronghorn antelope: tiny figures pret the desert than to let it tell its own tographs as well as in its huge format (13" x against a forbidding brown desert scrub- story, preferring to tell us about the "dis- 14", 146 color plates, dangerous if land, which shows both the desert's life torting lens" of our culture rather than paint dropped). A one-man "natural history pho- and its (in conventional terms) honest ugli- us a clearer picture. This is really not a tographic survey along the entire 1,936- ness. book for the reader who wants to be mile United States-Mexico border, cover- Blake has also photographed centipedes, stunned and educated at the same time, but ing a 100-mile swath," as Blake describes jaguars, wolves, new-hatched sea turtles, is a beautiful reminder of all that is worthy it, it is divided into chapters roughly corre- butterflies and gila monsters, in addition to of preservation and appreciation, even in sponding to varying biotic regions, rein- many varied landscape studies. Together, unexpected places — and would be a taste- forcing the impression of great diversity. these give an unexpected, powerful and sad- ful and fascinating addition to any coffee Blake is a wildlife photographer born in dening impression of ecological richness— table able to bear its weight. Kerrville who has published in National saddening, because so many of these ani- Geographic, Audubon and Natural History. mals are vanishing. This book was The photographs in Two Eagles com- He has an uncanny ability to combine mo- published with funding assistance from the prise a Smithsonian Institution Travelling ments illustrative of a particular animal's Nature Conservancy, which also gets a per- Exhibition Service (SITES) exhibition behavior with aesthetically flattering set- centage of the royalties. The Conservancy which opened in San Diego in 1993, and tings, especially in cases of birds. The bor- works to protect areas of ecological signifi- which will be visiting Texas on the follow- der is home to an amazing variety of par- cance through gifts, purchases or coopera- ing dates: rots, hawks, orioles (its splendid orange tive management of land, either with gov- San Antonio: Witte Museum, Jan. 21 plumage accented here against gray ernment or private landowners. Among the through March 19, 1995. branches and a gray sky) and egrets, among more than 1,600 Conservancy-owned pre- Dallas: Dallas Museum of Natural His- others. The eagles, which, as the book serves is Gray Ranch, 500 square miles of tory, Sept. 9 through Nov. 5, 1995; Nov. 25, points out, play a large role in the national New Mexico borderland that hosts one-third 1995 through Jan. 21, 1996. of the state's amphibian species and about Lubbock: Museum of Texas Tech, Feb. half of its reptile, bird and mammal species. 10 though April 7, 1996. Observer editorial intern Darvyn Spagnolly It would have been of some encourage- El Paso: University of Texas-El Paso is a graduate student in journalism at the ment if there were more straightforward Centennial Museum, April 27 through June

University of Missouri. natural history in the essays accompanying 23, 1996. ❑

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17 Black Guys Jump

BY STEVEN G. KELLMAN

HOOP DREAMS its athletic prowess by stocking the basket- the Agee and Gates' families that the film Directed by Steve James ball team with imported talent. A pitch hits its buckets. from Isiah Thomas, an alumnus of St. William's older brother Curtis is a for- NOTHER WILLIAM GATES, not Joseph, leaves Agee and Gates enthralled, mer high school basketball star who is con- the Microsoft mogul, grew up and the two young men are soon spending vinced that he could have been a pro if only Ablack and poor in West Garfield three hours a day commuting to and from his career had not gotten untracked at the Park, among the mean streets of Chicago. their new suburban school. Gates initially University of Central Florida. When Curtis An indifferent student, Gates tested at blossoms at St. Joseph; he is accepted onto loses his job as a security guard, William's fourth-grade level as a high school fresh- the varsity team while only a freshman, and benefactor finds him work at an Encyclope- man, but he excelled at basketball, the city he even manages to raise his grade level to dia Britannica warehouse. But Curtis game that lifts a very few black giants out nine within a few months. Agee, however, counts on the benefactions of William's of the inner city, Ogden Nash dismissed flounders, disappointing both the school's success to redeem him from his own fail- basketball as "a game which won't be fit demanding coach, Gene Pingatore, and his ure. Also living vicariously through a for people until they set the basket umbili- academic teachers. "I just never been promising young athlete is "Bo," Arthur's cus high and return the giraffes to the zoo," around a lot of white people," says the boy wayward father. He, too, is convinced that but the game made a prophet out of Isiah about the alien environment into which he he could have made it in the NBA, though Thomas, the NBA star who started in the has been brought in order to produce. When he has trouble coping with ordinary life in playgrounds of Chicago. Agee's family, dependent on welfare, is un- Chicago without resorting to drugs. Bo pe- William Gates venerates Thomas, and so able to make reduced tuition payments, he riodically deserts the family, and he spends does Arthur Agee, a youngster living in the is unceremoniously expelled. Gates seems time behind bars for burglary and battery. Cabrini-Green Housing Project and dream- more promising, and his costs are covered (Willie Gates abandoned his family when ing of dribbling to riches and renown as an by a generous white angel, Patricia Weir, his son William was but a baby). Arthur's NBA athlete. Professional success in bas- the president of Encyclopedia Britannica. mother Sheila is the most inspiring figure in ketball is such an unlikely long shot that Agee is thrust into Marshall Metro High the film. Struggling to pay the family's most inner-city boys are better off develop- School, a dreary public institution where debts, she nevertheless manages to com- ing a layup. guards search for weapons at the door. plete a program to be a nurse's assistant and Hoop Dreams opens with parallel shots Hoop Dreams begins to take the shape of a earns the highest grades in her training of 14-year-old Gates and 14-year-old Agee prince-and-pauper melodrama, crosscut- group. Her modest graduation ceremony is each gazing intently at a TV broadcast of ting between the privileged life at St. one of the most moving scenes in a_ film that the NBA All-Star Game. An extraordinary Joseph and the meager one at Marshall. neither spurns nor sentimentalizes the lives exercise in empathy, the nonfiction film While Gates munches pizza in a Princeton of its hapless subjects. Except for occa- traces five years in the adolescent lives of dormitory during the Nike summer camp sional, unobtrusive narration, particularly Gates and Agee as they pursue their goals where All- American prospects are scouted to explicate the basketball games, Hoop of courtly glory. The finished product was by Bobby Knight, Joey Meyer and other Dreams allows its characters to speak for honed to a little bit less than three hours, eminent coaches, Agee is back in Chicago themselves. but filmmakers Steve James, Frederick toiling for minimum wage at Pizza Hut. As if to confirm T. S. Eliot's observation Marx and Peter Gilbert accumulated 250 Until sidelined by a torn cartilage, Gates, that mankind cannot bear too much reality, hours of footage, in a project that required courted by dozens of colleges, seems des- Spike Lee has announced that he intends to the epic patience of baseball, even cricket, tined for grandeur, while Agee, failing remake Hoop Dreams as a fictional feature rather than the frenetic intensity of basket- Spanish and science, is lackluster on a los- to be broadcast at the time of the NBA fi- ball. Hoop Dreams offers thrilling se- ing Marshall team. But the plot thickens nals. Even if Emilio Estevez and Keanu quences in crucial games, but, like Friday and twists, and Hoop Dreams becomes Reeves are not cast with cork in the leading Night Lights, H. G. Bassinger's study of something other than Rocky with foul shots. roles, there is as much need for a fictional- football culture at Permian High School in Producers James, Marx and Gilbert no ization of this fascinating film as for a se- Odessa,. Texas, this is vivid contemporary doubt hoped to document the rise of a new quel to Gone with the Wind. Why tamper ethnography. High school basketball sup- Isiah Thomas, but they stuck with the pro- with the truth? Lee himself offers an an- plies the context for understanding how ject even after basketball failed to beatify swer, during a brief appearance at the Nike race, class and economics shape the lives of the two boys they bet on. scouting camp that is included within Hoop American urban blacks. Hoop Dreams records the consequences Dreams. The diminutive director, a basket- After Earl Smith, a freelance scout, dis- of ambition, not just for the principal ball junkie who is rabidly devoted to the covers Agee and Gates in separate pickup dreamers. In fact, Arthur Agee and William New York Knicks, encourages the adoles- games, their lives are transformed utterly. Gates remain remarkably elusive for all the cent stars who are assembled at Princeton. They are taken for auditions at St. Joseph, a time they spend in front of the camera. It But he warns them about a career in basket- private high school intent on perpetuating comes as a surprise when we learn that each ball: "This whole thing's involved around is a father, since we did not have a clue that money." Money skews the lives of athletes, each had a lover. We gain a clearer idea of even at the high school level, even as it Steven G. Kellman teaches comparative litera- pugnacious Gene Pingatore than of the shy taints the making of movies. Hoop Dreams ture at the University of Texas at San Antonio. boys he coaches. But it is in its portraits of is an exceptional achievement. ❑

18 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994

7. -1 T ■ 111111111111MIMIEMIIIMINSI Continued from pg. 24 ✓ FUNNY MAN. In three years with the as Gibraltar's to operate with lax enforce- Attorney General's office, Drew Durham ment, she said, neighbors' property values nanny problems. Democratic challenger has risen to chief of the criminal justice di- have dropped and air and groundwater pol- Rolando Rios had been hammering vision and death-penalty litigation. He also lution has caused health problems. Glazer Bonilla's opposition to Democratic initia- has a history of racist and sexist comments, also recently was notified that the Office of tives such as the earned income tax credit according to a report by Robert Elder Jr. in Civil Rights of the U.S. Environmental Pro- and the crime bill, but Bonilla's nannygate the Oct. 31 Texas Lawyer. Former Travis tection Agency has determined that jurisdic- got the attention of radio talk show hosts. County Commissioner Jimmy Snell, who tion exists to process a complaint from worked for Durham in the AG's intergov- MOSES that the state's regulation of LINING UP. ✓ It's not to early to worry ernmental affairs division, said Durham, a Gibraltar has the effect, if not the purpose, about the forces that will be arrayed against former West Texas prosecutor, routinely of discriminating against African-American the commonweal during the next Legisla- told "nigger jokes," while former consumer members of MOSES. ture. Eighteen agencies are up for Sunset re- protection chief Joe K. Crews said it was view, including the Public Utility Commis- common knowledge within that agency that ✓ PEOPLE'S CHOICE. In a Texas Poll sion, whose reauthorization was put off two Durham "has a problem on racial issues and conducted the second week of October and years ago when the last Legislature was un- on gender issues." Ray Buvia, who quit the released Oct. 31, 51 percent of respondents able to come to terms; workers' compensa- AG's office March 31, said Durham re- said abortion should be legal, 39 percent tion, always a mess of conflicting interests; ferred to a black lawyer as "our newest said it should not, 8 percent were unsure and the Racing Commission and Equine Re- Sambo" and bragged that he had told 2 percent did not answer. The poll has a sta- search Account Advisory Committee; the Morales, "Where I come from Mexicans tistical margin of error of 3 percentage Texas Department of Agriculture and affili- work for white men, not the other way points. Gov . Richards supports , abortion ated boards; the Office of State-Federal Re- around," although Buvia doubted Durham rights while George W. Bush would allow lations; five agencies relating to historical had told Morales any such thing. Buvia said abortion only in cases of rape or incest or to preservation and the arts, including the An- Morales looked upon Durham as a political save a woman's life. The results mirrored a tiquities Committee, the Texas Commission asset because he "can go out and help him September poll in which 52 percent of re- on the Arts, the Historical Commission, the get the good-old-boy vote." spondents labeled themselves "pro-choice." Library. and Archives Commission and the The Texas Abortion Rights Action League Preservation Board; and other agencies ✓ WISE ABUSE. Neighbors of the PAC endorsed Richards, Lt. Gov. Bob Bul- added by the 73rd Lege, including the Gibraltar Chemical Resources Inc. haz- lock, Attorney General Dan Morales, Trea- Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and the ardous waste disposal plant in Winona, after surer Martha Whitehead, Land Commis- Teachers Retirement System as well as the hearing conservatives complain about fed- sioner Garry Mauro, Railroad PUC and Office of Public Utility Counsel. eral regulations encroaching on their prop- Commissioner Mary Scott Nabers, Betty The utility review is likely to include a battle erty rights, issued a press release wondering Marshall for the Court of Criminal Appeals over deregulation of electrical generating when state and federal authorities were and Alice Oliver Parrott and Jimmy Carroll and distribution, as Destec Energy Inc., a going to stop polluters from "taking" the use for the Texas Supreme Court. Houston-based wholesale generator, is seek- of neighbors' property without consent or ing the opportunity to supply electricity to compensation. "We've heard about prop- ✓ TWO GIANTS PASS. Journalism on industrial and commercial users. Telephone erty owners whose rights could be abridged the left lost two giants this past week with the companies also are pushing for deregulation by efforts to protect an endangered song- deaths of Andrew Kopkind, associate editor that would allow them to get into interactive bird," said Phyllis Glazer, president of and senior political writer for The Nation, on technology, while potentially competing Mothers Organized to Stop Environmental Oct. 23 and Erwin Knoll, editor of The Pro- communications companies such as long- Sins (MOSES). "We have property owners gressive, Nov. 1. Kopkind, who was 59, was, distance carriers and cable TV companies in Winona, many of them people of color in the words of Alexander Cockburn, "the have allied with Consumers Union and the whose families have farmed here for gener- best radical reporter and writer of his time." Office of Public Utility Counsel to submit an ations, whose land and very lives already Knoll, who was 63, was remembered by Pro- alternative plan. Casino interests, clearly have been severely impacted by Gibraltar gressive publisher Matthew Rothschild as "a hoping to grease the skids in next year's leg- Chemical Resources Inc." Since state and pugnacious pacifist." Both were longtime islative session for a bill to legalize casino federal authorities have allowed plants such friends of the Observer. gambling, gave Lieut. Gov. Bob Bullock an- ❑ other $57,500 from July through September, bringing Bullock's take from gambling in- terests to more than $200,000 this past year, the Fort Worth Star- Telegram reported. Bul- lock, who presides over the Senate, has said he is personally opposed to casino gambling but he would not hinder a measure. Juvenile crime is likely to come up for a rewrite as law-and-order advocates seek to reduce the PEOPLE age at which juveniles can be tried as adults. Make a world of difference ! The state's banks will be pushing for a re- We're proud of our employees and their contributions to your view of the ban on home-equity loans; the success and ours. Call us for quality printing, binding, mailing prison-industrial complex will be pushing and data processing services. Get to know the people at Futura. for more lockups; and land developers will be promoting "property-rights" legislation P.O. Box 17427 Austin, TX 78760.7427 to limit environmental protection; and busi- ness interests will pursue more limits on lia- FUTUM 389-1500 bility in the courts. COMMUNICATIONS. INC.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19 Though A Lens, Darkly

BY SUSANNA SHEFFIELD

OTOFEST'S FIFTH International the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean. On the doned gods of Angkor Wat. Endangered Festival of Photography, scheduled same weekend, FotoFest looks at other as- species; remnants of war; life in the inner F for November 10-30 at Houston's pects of Latino culture, with events honor- cities; effects of toxins on farm workers, George R. Brown Convention Center, con- ing Houston's Arte Public° Press, the old- Chernobyl on children, rapid development tinues a long-term engagement with cross- est and largest Hispanic press in the United and agribusiness on the and American cultural issues through American Voices, States, a street fiesta, and other exhibits. West: "Images of the World" is a wake-up Latino/Chicano/Hispanic Photography in FotoFest's second principal exhibit call. These images lead into the the U.S. —a ground-breaking exhibition by 39 Latino/His- Hall of Globes, a darkened panic photographers working room illuminated by 80 to 100 in the United States. As the title free-standing globes that depict suggests, the exhibit is about worldwide geopolitical and en- one and many. In this case, it is vironmental conditions. Hall of Mexican American, Puerto Globes is the creation of Ingo Rican and Cuban American: Giinther, a German, New York- the three oldest, largest Span- based, conceptual artist whose ish-language cultures in the independent and unorthodox United States. Curated by four approach to assembling data Latino artist/scholars, the show makes this exhibit a provoca- assembles a large and diverse tive experience and something body of work never seen to- of a lesson that geography gether. Reclaiming history and classes never taught us. creating cultural memory— The. Global Environment through family, community, re- culininates in an on-line inter- ligious tradition, political and active earth science informa- historical iconography—are re- tion center called the Earth current motifs of this show, Forum. Gigabytes of global which ranges from straightfor- data and images allow visitors ward photography to three- to surf the information high- dimensional installations. way by way of six world work- Amassing this much photo- stations. Recognizing the edu- based information in one place cational potential of the Earth reveals U.S. Latino photogra- Forum, the World Resources phy to be deserving of main- Institute, National Geographic stream critical attention and Society and NASA have do- new scholarly investigation. It nated large data banks for the will be interesting to see if au- exhibit. Global population diences and critics find paral- data assembled by internation- lels to better-known Anglo- ally known development American photographic art and economist Robert Fox are an if differences in history have essential component of each made for differences in cre- world workstation. The Earth ative expression between one Forum will remain in Houston Latino culture and another. As as a permanent exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Kathy Vargas, co-curator of LAURA AGUILAR Science. the Mexican American section From American Voices of American Voices, com- FotoFest' s third show, ments, "As we look at images of ourselves, crosses borders to look at the condition of Fashion: Evolution/Revolution, explores we share ourselves within our communi- the earth. The Global Environment is a another side of image-making and its rela- ties, among our communities and outside three-part look at the world and the ways tion to our world. It does so through a com- our communities." we use imagery to shape our perceptions. pact survey of nine decades of fashion pho- A three-day symposium, scheduled from The exhibit opens with "Images of the tography, which traces the changing ideas November. 11-13, will provide a forum for World," a collection of images which, of beauty and style from the soft-focused Latino artists, curators and educators from when seen together, inform the viewer that glamor of early 20th century photographers the world is hauntingly beautiful but fragile to the hard-edged, androgynous, street- and in jeopardy. Portraits of Brazil's belea- smart work of post-modern artists. Susanna Sheffield is a freelance writer in guered Yamomani Indians share a space For FotoFest's 10th anniversary (its ex- Houston. with photo-documentation of the aban- hibits are scheduled for every other year),

20 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994 the University of Texas soring a series of environ- Harry Ransom Center is al- mental lectures by artists lowing the world's first pho- and experts, as well as an tograph to be exhibited from Eco-Fair on November 18- Novemberl 8-26. This will 20. Rice University's Con- be the first time the fragile tinuing Studies department heliograph by Joseph is sponsoring two special Nicephore Niepce has left courses on the environmen- Austin since the Ransom tal and fashion exhibits. Center acquired it 30 years Other related events in- ago, as a gift from collector clude workshops, a trade Helmut Gernsheim. fair and Photo-Eye Book- Gernsheim will also be a store put together by one of participant in the Interna- the world's largest distribu- tional Meeting Place, a focal tors of photographic books. point for international cura- The guiding force behind tors, critics and editors who FotoFest is photographic review work of novice and art, but FotoFest is also established photographers. about photography's value To help support this event ANTONIN KRATOCHVIL as a medium for the ex- for artists, who can meet 'Pollution' from Global Environment change of ideas. FotoFest's critics and professionals organizers Fred Baldwin from all over the world, FotoFest will hold in education. The student work on the and Wendy. Watriss bring a global perspec- its first Fine Print Auction, on November FotoFence is a colorful, moving insiders' tive and years of international photo-jour- 17. view of family and neighborhood life in nalistic experience to the festival, which has The FotoFence, a display of photographs Houston. developed international support and follow- and writings of student participants in Some 20 area-wide museums, alternative ing. It is almost impossible to leave this FotoFest's ongoing Literacy Through Pho- spaces and galleries are augmenting event without a sharpened awareness of the tography program in inner-city Houston FotoFest's programs with other photogra- impact of pictures and a sense of being re- schools, illustrates FotoFest's involvement phy-related exhibits. FotoFest is also spon- connected to the world. ❑

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THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21 AFTERWORD The Beige Place

BY CAROL REEVES

HEN JIMMIE DALE Gilmore scape needing some color. It's an itch that dust storm? How would you build a mathe- played his first gig here in Indi- needs scratching. matical model of a cyclist peddling with the W anapolis, he claimed he was It's an atmosphere full of negative ions wind, between Pinkies and the Loop, with a from Austin, never guessing that someone and fundamentalism, itchy results of hov- case of Coors strapped to his or her back? in the audience knew he had grown up in ering low pressure systems, one physical, How much wind would it take to swoop Lubbock, someone who had lived there in one spiritual. Sandstorms, tornadoes and this person off the highway? What happens the '70s, listening to him, Joe Ely, Butch fiery sermons all seem to take their energy to the psyche and one's clean underwear Hancock and Terry Allen cut their musical from that interminable, taunting, brown during a St. Patrick's day snow dirt storm? teeth at Main Street Saloon, Stubbs BBQ, flatness, that empty space that seems to How do people who live in "cool" places and Fat Dawgs. want filling up. It's easy to give in to the ever learn to be good critical thinkers? How For some reason, Gilmore's reluctance to flatness, to settle into beige, treeless plains do they ever become ambitious? We all claim Lubbock as the place he was really so that when the wind blows through, you know that the itch to leave a place is, in it- from annoyed me. So, I yelled out some have burrowed far enough in to avoid the self, a source of energy and ambition. well-known Lubbock hot spots: "The pelting sand. White Pig! Fat Dawgs! Prairie Dog Town! But it's also possible to resist that flat- OR A WHILE, my Lubbock friends Taco Village!" He looked down on the ness, to take energy from it,' and to make and I ignored that itch to leave, vow- dance floor, empty except for me and my your own turbulence—joyful creativity as Fing to stay in Lubbock where we'd partner, and quipped in his typically meta- well as sorrowful depression. It's a place grown together out of desperation and re- physical style: "A person from Lubbock! that makes you want to fill it up, color it mained together out of love. In, places Well, Indianapolis is a good place to be up, itch to create and to leave—all at the where there are few things to do, strong from Lubbock." same time. I've known Lubbock folks bonds of friendship are forged out of neces- I know what most of you in Austin and who, like swaying willows, can go all di- sity. We planned to spend the rest of our San Antonio and Dallas think of Lub- rections at once. They have a metaphysical lives eating chili rellenos at Taco Village bock—you think it's an armpit. You laugh bent, only they wouldn't call it that. Any- (now Taco Pueblo), dancing to the Maines at the billboards along your freeways ad- one who grows up in this flat, beige uni- Brothers, and waiting for Ely and Butch vertising "Lubbock—For All Reasons." verse will have a gift for filling empty and Jimmie Dale to come back and play for ("For what reasons? For all reasons if you space, ferreting out color and scratching us once in a while. We'd watch the playoff happen to like monotony.") You can't metaphysical itches. games together while outside, blowing sand imagine anyone choosing to live in Lub- Every Sunday, I'd ferret out the color as pelted our pickups, and in the summers, bock or being homesick for an armpit. I sat with my family in church. Just behind we'd sit on our porches in cool, dry You've observed how those who have the red-faced preacher, hanging over the evenings. We hoped to watch each other's chosen to live there maintain a certain de- mildewed water in the baptistery hung a children grow up. But Joel's girlfriend, fensiveness when they visit you in Austin. painting of a green valley filled with flow- Donna, just had to move to Austin, and nat- As you sit in a traffic jam, they'll remark— ering trees, a blue pond and grazing deer— urally, Joel just had to move with her. Then "No such thing in Lubbock, why you can a picture of heaven for us flatlanders. Then, Paul followed. Then Brenda. Then every- drive around the loop all by yourself if of course, there was my mother's lip- one else. Like thirsty Herefords rushing for you've a mind to do such a thing." Or when stick—bright copper—which she bought the creek after a little shower. They'd pull you take them to crowded Sixth Street bars from the mustachioed Avon Lady who car- their U-Hauls up to my house on their way in Austin with no room to dance, they'll re- ried a huge carpetbag full of mysterious out of town: "Now, you come on down, too. mind you that up home, people don't sit jars and lovely smells and colored up our It'll be the same old group but in a better around looking cool; they dance. A Lub- lives once a month. place." I'd give them a smile and a hug, all bock friend gives the following homily When there's nothing much to do, you the while thinking that it was this place that every time I talk to him: "Life is so easy and learn to turn everything you notice into an had made this group. simple. You don't have to drive forever. object of study. Where else but Lubbock When I visited my friends in Austin, I You have plenty of time to think. People are can you make a study of these questions: found them living exactly as they had lived closer. The air is dry and clean." Just how high were the hairdos at the Red in Lubbock. They were still gathering to- You think this is all psychological justifi- Raider Inn Nightclub before it burned gether, still watching the playoff games, cation for living in an armpit? Well, it's down and is there some connection? How still searching out the best heuvos con not, and I'm here to tell you why. do they get gravy to turn out that color at chorizo. (They never found rellenos as Lubbock is space to fill up. A beige land- Chandler's downtown? How many cases of good as those we got at Taco Village in Coors can be consumed between the "wet" Lubbock.) The main difference is that they strip and Avenue Q by a good ole boy from had a view of Lake Travis, more than one Carol Reeves teaches English at Butler Uni- Idalou driving a '67 Ford pickup and good choice to make about anything, and versity. pulling a load of steers—in the middle of a no sandstorms.

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Of course, the attraction of a place is all used up a half tank of gas, then drove to the you push yourself to outgrow it? It's realiz- relative. What Austin was to my Lubbock church, a little late, a little windblown. ing later, after examination, that you can't friends, Lubbock was to me as a child grow- Jimmie Dale is right, though. To be from outgrow a place. You can only outgrow ing up on a farm between Floydada and Sil- Lubbock in Indianapolis or most any place yourself in that place, the place that gave verton. Lubbock was the big city, the cul- but Texas is to be considered exotic. When you the unseen energy, the itch, to move on. tural Mecca. For me, taking a trip to they hear the word "Lubbock," most people But you haven't really outgrown that self Lubbock once a month was like taking a trip up here in "Naptown," as we call Indianapo- if you can't pay your debt to the place you to another planet. Dad's handmade boots lis, have a list of impressions that includes had to leave. from San Angelo and his shrink-to-fits Buddy Holly, desert landscape, oil wells stood out like careless weeds in the line at and gun-toting cowboys. They assume peo- ETAPHYSICS examines things Furrs Cafeteria where "city" men wore suits ple from Lubbock must be interesting char- independently of what observa- and ties instead of Levis, and the women acters, especially if they speak with the cor- M tion seems to tell us. Lubbock is seemed to have arrived from Paris. Even rect slow, nasal, tight-lipped twang. You the quintessential home of the metaphysi- though she regularly combed Vogue maga- could be the most boring person in Lubbock cian. Heidegger would have loved the place. zine at Betty's beauty shop to keep up with county and come up here and be the hit of a Observation seems to tell us that we are sur- fashions, mother would stand there, check- party just by saying "Hi. I'm from Lub- rounded by dry and dusty cotton fields and ing herself against the women in the line bock." A friend of mine thought my accent dry, slow-talking flatlanders. We can only and suddenly notice, much to her horror, was thick until he visited Lubbock with me see monotony. But what we can't see when that her hemline was longer or shorter than and heard an undiluted version. One after- we look out over that flat plain but what we it should be or that her fingernails were dirty noon, we sat in a tiny, dark bar on Univer- can examine metaphysically are the flat- from pulling up a weed in her petunias that sity Avenue, listening to the conversation land's invisible seas—one a secret, under- morning as we walked out to the car. between the bartender and one customer: ground river in the Ogllala formation and And to Gerry Berkowitz, my friend from "Weeeeel, Ah thaaank Ahhhhl haaaave ah- the other a sea of wind that blows up an oc- Long Island, New York, living in Lubbock hhnother wuutiun ahhhh thoze Currrrz." My casional dust devil. And what we can't see rather than New York and studying agricul- friend thought these people were just ham- when we sit with tight-lipped flatlanders in ture at Texas Tech rather than medicine at ming it up for his benefit: "People really a dark bar on a hot, windy afternoon in Lub- Brandeis was not just a way to make his talk like that! Amazing." bock, Texas, but what we can examine mother crazy. It was also a place for stories metaphysically, is their secret energy that he could collect like arrowheads and take NDIANAPOLIS IS IN some ways a comes from swimming against a river of back with him to civilization. One of his larger version of Lubbock, only without electric winds running through that vast ex- stories is this: On the day he arrived in Lub- I the wind, the sand, and the brown. There panse of sky. bock, he took a taxi to a boot store where he are trees, color, and water here. The land- We might actually get to see this energy if bought a new pair of bright red, roping- scape here often reminds me of the picture there happens to be a dance floor in this bar. heeled Justins. While walking gingerly to- of Heaven over that baptistery. The people You know the kind of thing that really ward the campus, his pants legs stuffed into are friendly and trusting; the politics are gets me homesick for Lubbock? The last the boot tops, a pick-up full of rednecks of- conservative. Dan Quayle lives up the road. time Gilmore played up here, after he had fered him a ride and took him out to a cotton Like Lubbock, the artistic space is open, un- finished his fourth song of the first set and field where they stole his new boots and cluttered. No well-worn tracks. Unlike noticed an empty dance floor, he said, beat him up. "You just don't look right in some places, everyone here is not writing "Now, y'all come on down here, fill up this those boots with your curly hair and fat books, making movies, or cutting CDs—or empty space." I interpreted this as an invita- butt," they yelled at him as they drove away. feeling compelled to lie and say they are tion to dance, but when my partner and I Whether this story is true or not—and it is doing such things. Creative or restless peo- went down to dance, there was no room. most likely not—the point is that Lubbock ple are caught in the "Lubbock Dilemma": Hoosiers were sitting on the dance floor inspires such stories. You can't leave Lub- to leave—to take that job in Austin or Los where they remained all evening. Lead bock without one. Angeles or Manhattan where you would not butts, I thought. "This would never happen be the only songwriter or publishing fiction in Lubbock, Texas," I commented to a man HIS IS ONE OF my Lubbock stories: writer or painter and where your audience standing next to me. "Well, this isn't Lub- On the morning of my wedding, I might be larger, more knowledgeable and bock," he said. T jumped into my Volkswagen Rabbit, more critical—or to stay and keep telling I suddenly got a flat, dull, beige feeling in deciding to make a break for New Mexico. I yourself that simplicity is all. Like in Lub- the pit of my stomach. 0 figured I could get to Fort Sumner by noon bock, in Indianapolis, you may miss the at- and call from my uncle Homer's motel. I'd mospheric intensity and verve of a critical say: "I'm sorry, but I just can't go through mass of creative minds crammed into one with this thing." Everyone—all the relatives place but, then, you won't miss the compe- who'd driven days, all the friends who'd tition. People who live in places like Lub- flown in from brighter places—would just bock and Indianapolis are like party guests ANDERSON & COMPANY eat cake and go home. I could wait out my who don't mind sitting in the corners, who • COFFEE embarrassment in one of uncle's dingy motel TEA SPICES don't flock to the kitchen just because it is TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE rooms and have conversations with his par- full of people. AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 rot, Pete. Then I remembered that both Pete Despite what he might have you believe, 512 45:1-1533 and uncle Homer had died. The motel had Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the rest of the Send me your list. been demolished to make way for a Taco flatlander musical entourage inherited a Bell. So I drove around and around loop 289, metaphysical bent while hovering in the Name a lonely circle built after the tornado hit Lub- cultural corner of Texas, itching to leave for Street bock in 1971. There I was, sweating in my Austin. What is more metaphysical than liv- City Zip white wedding suit, driving with the win- ing in a place whose observable features dows down, the entire freeway to myself. I make you want to leave so desperately that

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23

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POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

V ELECTION PROSPECTS: A week of Drew Nixon had been picked up by police in 47 percent of the non-Hispanic vote. Newt Gingrich boasting about his plans as Dallas in the company of a prostitute in While Richards expects to get the lion's House Speaker and voters focusing on the February 1993, which undercut his family- share of the black and Hispanic vote, potential cost to the middle class of the Re- values-oriented campaign in favor of former Democratic campaign officials were con- publican "Contract with America" put a Rep. Curtis Soileau, D-Lumberton. cerned about turnout. In Houston, where the brace in Democratic election hopes as the Little change is expected in the 150-mem- Richards campaign was hoping for a mid-term elections approach. In Texas, al- ber Texas House, where Republicans hold 60 turnout of 50 percent of registered black though several Democratic incumbents were seats but generally form a coalition with con- voters, black turnout in gubernatorial elec- still said to be in trouble, the GOP threat to servative Democrats anyway. Races to watch tions is normally about 35 percent, a differ- close the 21-9 gap in the U.S. House delega- include three party switchers: Rep. Ric ence of 30,000 votes. National black lead- tion appears to have receded. Vulnerable Williamson of Weatherford and Rep. Pete ers such as Jesse Jackson, Barbara Jordan Democrats still include Rep. Bill Sarpalius Nieto of Uvalde both switched to the Repub- and Commerce Secretary Ron Brown were of Amarillo, after reports that a grand jury lican Party last year and face Democratic scheduled to campaign in Houston for was investigating his ties to a moving com- challengers while Rep. Bernard Erickson of Democrats, including Congressional candi- pany interested in military contracts; Rep. Burleson switched to the Democratic Party dates Ken Bentsen, who faces an uphill bat- Greg Laughlin of West Columbia also has and faces a Republican challenger. In West tle, and Sheila Jackson Lee, whd should been accused of getting favors from the Texas District 74, Rep. Pete Gallego, D- win easily in the majority-black district. moving company. But Democrats are start- Alpine, faces a challenge from Robert Garza, ing to breathe easier about Reps. Ron Cole- R-Del Rio, backed by Hudspeth County resi- V LENA'S REVENGE. George W. man of El Paso, Martin Frost and John dents outraged by Gallego's support, albeit Bush's Tex-Mex radio ad, playing on Te- Bryant of Dallas, and Jack Brooks of Beau- reluctant, for a nuclear waste dump at Sierra jano radio stations statewide, that criticized mont. Swing districts include the 25th in Blanca. In West Texas District 80, the seat Richards' appointment of Lena Guerrero Houston, where Ken Bentsen is hoping the given up by conservative Democrat Jim may have backfired. Bush reminded His- marginally Democratic district will turn out Rudd, Democrat Kevin Jackson of Andrews panic voters that Guerrero, the state's most to elect him over big-spending, right-wing faces Republican Gary Walker of Plains. In prominent Latina official when she was Republican Gene Fontenot, and the South- Dallas District 105, the seat given up by pro- named to the Railroad Commission in west Texas 23rd District, where Democratic gressive Democrat Al Granoff, Democrat 1991, had misstated her educational back- challenger Rolando Rios has been buoyed by Dale B. Tillery faces Republican Mike An- ground, which led to her electoral defeat in reports that freshman GOP Rep. Henry derson. In Harris County District 144, fresh- 1992. As Sylvia Moreno of the Dallas. Bonilla of San Antonio, who has embraced man Rep. Robert E. Talton of Pasadena, Morning News noted, that is still a sensitive the Republican push toward tighter immigra- whose 1992 victory was tainted by charges of political topic among Latinos in Texas. tion controls, employed an undocumented voting irregularities, faces Democrat Scot M. nanny for seven years. Rios is still rated a Doyal, son of a former mayor. ✓ CONGRESSIONAL COYOTE? longshot in the sprawling but Democrat- Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, called leaning Border district. V FISHER HEADS SOUTH. Richard for crackdowns on illegal immigration just In the Senate, where the GOP hoped to Fisher won the Democratic primary by beat- a few months after the Justice Department hold its 13 of 31 seats, endangered ing Jim Mattox in South Texas but his ad- decided the statute of limitations had run Democrats include Sen. Steve Carriker, D- vantage among Hispanic voters had eroded out on prosecution of the Bonillas on a Roby, and conservative Sen. Bill Sims, D- by the second week in October, when the charge of smuggling a British nanny into Paint Rock, who moved into a new West Texas Poll found only 37 percent of Latino the United States, the Houston Post re- Texas district. Mario Gallegos Jr., a Demo- voters supported him, down from 51 percent ported. The nanny told immigration investi- cratic state rep from Houston, is unopposed in August, as the number of undecided His- gators that the Bonillas knew she was enter- in his new Hispanic-majority 6th District panics grew to 37 percent, according to ing the United States on a tourist visa only while David Cain, a Democratic state rep Southwest Voter Research Institute. An all- to go to work for them, the Post reported; from Dallas, is favored to pick up the 2nd time high of 1,278,234 Hispanic voters had Bonilla said he kept INS apprised of her District in Northeast Texas. Rep. Mike Mar- registered for the November election, the in- whereabouts. He said the nanny was never a tin, D-Galveston, hoped to unseat Sen. Jerry stitute reported, accounting for 14.8 percent burden on taxpayers, although the nanny Patterson, R-Pasadena, in a Galveston Bay of the potential Texas electorate of 8.6 mil- told INS investigators that neither taxes nor district and Democrat Margaret Ross lion. One million Hispanic voters were regis- Social Security were withheld from her Messina of Granbury, although underfunded, tered in 1990, but only 30 percent went to the pay, which was given to her largely in cash. was taking the fight to Sen. David Sibley, R- polls, compared with the 54 percent turnout The Bonillas fired the nanny in 1993, Waco, in a marginally Democratic district in of non-Hispanic voters in 1990. Still, the shortly after Zoe Baird' s nomination as At- North Central Texas. Democratic hopes of Latino vote, which went approximately 80 torney General was derailed by her own keeping vacant East Texas District 3 were en- percent for Richards in 1990, was enough to hanced by reports that Republican candidate turn the tide for the Governor, who received Continued on pg. 19

24 • NOVEMBER 11, 1994