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Wit**-5146.40Ath,„ THIS ISSUE 1

FEATURE

Molly Ivins: Three Chords and the Truth by Michael King 8 Austin's inimitable "Honky-Tonk Angel "says she's "angry, bitter, and disgusted." We go Texas two-steppin' with our favorite "singing arthur" to find out why.

DEPARTMENTS BOOKS AND THE CULTURE

Dialogue 2 Sustaining Connections 18 Editorial 4 Poetry by Thomas Whitbread & Oprah 1, Cattlemen 0 Margie McCreless Roe VOLUME 90, NO. 5 by Karen Olsson 19 A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES Molly Between the Covers We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the Dateline Texas Book Review by Karen Olsson truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all INS Grocery Shopping 5 interests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation by Nate Blakeslee Hitting the Road 22 of democracy: we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrep- The B-1 Bomb 6 Book Reviews by Char Miller resent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. by Robert Bryce Writers are responsible for their own work, but not Asians for Sale 24 for anything they have not themselves written, and in Molly Ivins 14 Book Review by Charles Wilbanks publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agree with them, because this is a journal offree voices. Greased Palms SINCE 1954 Pressing Ideals 26 Jim Hightower 15 David Richards Remembers Mark Adams Founding Editor: Ronnie Dugger Travel Trips, Nike Goobers Publisher: Geoff Rips & Social Security Fix Progressive Democrats 28 Editors: Louis Dubose, Michael King Assistant Editor: Mimi Bardagjy Political Intelligence 16 by Mark Adams Associate Editor: Karen Olsson Poetry Editor: Naomi Shihab Nye The Back Page 32 Afterword 30 Business Manager, Web Editor: Amanda Toering The Press and the U.S. War Machine Karla Faye Tucker's Development Director: Nancy Williams Chronicle of Death Foretold Production: Harrison Saunders Cover photo by Alan Pogue Circulation Assistant: Jeff Mandell by Carmen Garcia Technical Consultant: Brian Ferguson Editorial Intern: Juliana Barbassa Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Barbara Belejack, DIALOGUE Betty Brink, Robert Bryce, Brett Campbell, Lars Eigh- ner, James K. Galbraith, Dagoberto Gilb, James Har- rington, Jim Hightower, Molly Ivins, Paul Jennings, HUNTSVILLE OLYMPICS? week that the State executed Karla Faye Steven G. Kellman, Bryce Milligan, Char Miller, Deb- As I settled in this past Sunday (February Tucker. Are our power brokers, like those bie Nathan, John Ross, Carol Stall, Brad Tyer, James McCarty Yeager. 8) for some light reading with the Houston idiot college kids who cheered as Tucker's Staff Photographer: Alan Pogue Chronicle, I was forced to confront the last chance appeals failed, blind to the in- Contributing Photographers: Vic Hinterlang, Patricia possibility of the 2012 Houston Olympics. ternational derision directed towards Moore. Texas and Harris County? Contributing Artists: Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, As a Houston resident for twelve years, I Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, am well conditioned both to the odd need This is one that Houston ain't gonna Valerie Fowler, Kevin Kreneck, Michael Krone, Ben get. Let's not waste my money pursuing Sargent, Gail Woods. felt by some (many?) here for national, in- Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; deed international, recognition of the city, the dream. Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler Davidson, Houston; and to the ability of the downtown crowd Fred Lazare Dave Denison, Arlington, Mass.; Bob Eckhardt, Austin; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; John Kenneth Galbraith, to play hardball to obtain their treasures. Houston Cambridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; Ongoing construction of the downtown Molly Ivins, Austin; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Jack- ballpark and the handover of city funds to COUNTING THE BODIES son, Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Fort Worth; James Presley, developers of the Fourth Ward speak vol- Your article on Karla Faye Tucker and the Texarkana; Susan Reid, Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. umes to this ability. death penalty ("The Humanity of Karla In Memoriam: Cliff Olofson, 1931-1995 As such, it is not a surprise that the Faye Tucker," by David Dow, February THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/USPS 541300), entire contents copyrighted, 1998, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval Chronicle is publicly proclaiming the 13) was very good and inspired these between issues in January and July (24 issues per year) by the Texas Democ- racy Foundation, a 50I(c)3 non-profit corporation, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, virtues of the Olympics to those of us who thoughts. Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) 477-0746. E-mail: [email protected]. World Wide Web DownHome page: http://texasobserver.org. Periodicals otherwise might not know better. Silly me, During my stay in the military (1967-69), Postage Paid at Austin, Texas. SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time I had this picture of massive traffic jams I was sent to Vietnam with an infantry bat- students $18 per year; add $13/year for foreign subs. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions and police on every corner, not to mention talion and specifically told by our battalion available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. the use of public funds for projects with no commander that we were going there to kill INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary lasting value. people. That was the greater plan to win in Index to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 1981, The Texas Observer Index. What is, to me, surprising is that this Vietnam. We'll "just" murder them into sub- POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. selling of the Olympics comes the same mission. This was why there was such an

2 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 obsession with having high "body counts." book about public broadcasting, Made So it is with the death penalty. Possible By... in the February 27 issue Now we have another politically ex- ("From You to Archer Daniels Midland"). ploitable body count which falsely assumes It's a solid piece of work and a book that that we, the State of Texas, are taking care deserves reading. However, Garlock or of business. On the eve of Karla Faye's your editing muddle things a bit. murder, Governor Bush said in very weird My bone to pick is with the use of fanciful terms what I used to read on one of "America" and "American." As you the more idiotic T-shirts, which said "Kill know, an American is a person who lives them all and let God sort them out." Is this in the Americas, that is, North or South the kind of world leadership we are to ex- America. I had assumed that the Observer pect from one who wants to be president? would edit out these terms when they are It reminded me of a recent episode of misused to describe a person residing in "The Simpsons." In this one there was a big the United States or something from this townhall meeting to sort out whether Spring- country. Please do so in the future. field should allow legalized gambling. The I don't want to preach here, but I cringe Reverend Lovejoy was asked his opinion when people say something like "Ameri- and replied, "Once the Government says it is cans believe that...." It is really an unex- A Karla Faye Tucker Alan Pogue legal it is no longer immoral." So going amined arrogance that we United States with the flow is the chicken-shit moral to Committing an atrocious, violent act does citizens carry with us. What does a his story. not remove a person from the category of Chilean or Venezuelan or Canadian think Killing isn't cool, it never has been, and "human being," despite the rhetoric of Mr. of us as we verbally place ourselves at the never will be. And like war it is just an- Cox's letter. Really, Tyrus, the only "proof' center of the universe (or hemisphere)? other disaster at the end of a long string of of one's humanity is one's anatomy. Here's About the best interpretation I can think of blunders. It is also more economical to be the hard truth: we should not kill killers be- is that our mis-usage of "America" is lazy our brothers' and sisters' keeper than cause they remain people, and it is wrong to or sloppy. A middle ground analysis might their killer. kill people. By the way, the jury did not de- call it ignorant. On the other extreme some Thomas Heikkala termine that Ms. Tucker was not a human might call it hegemonic or bigoted. Austin being. The jury determined that she was One thing is certain — we in the United guilty of her accused crime. States aren't the only Americans. Let's CELLBLOCK BELIEVERS Finally, it's absurd to justify executions quit talking like we are. Professor David Dow is wrong and pre- on the basis of existing poverty. Protecting Tony Switzer sumptuous when he states, "No one has civil society from violent individuals is a Austin reason to doubt the sincerity of Tucker's necessary and legitimate function of the conversion" in his anti-death penalty arti- state, just as caring for the most impover- The Editors respond: cle. I take strong exception to such a ished and vulnerable members of our society By ordinary linguistic convention, citizens pompous pronouncement, because I doubt is a necessary and legitimate function of the of the United States of America are called all prison conversions. They are automati- state. It is our responsibility to fund both. "Americans," just as citizens of Venezuela cally suspect to me, coming as they do in Just had to get that off my chest. are called "Venezuelans" and citizens of the restricted and artificial environment of Bill Bailey Canada are called "Canadians." More incarceration. When these criminals seek Austin precise distinctions are only necessary out their religious experiences "on the out- P.S. Thanks for going out and digging up when a writer is distinguishing between side," in the real world, then I will be able important information throughout the state "North" and "South" Americans (which to consider their sincerity. and presenting it bi-weekly in an accessi- still doesn't solve the Canadian problem, Annette Stone ble form with pertinent, liberal analysis. nor does it help much in distinguishing El Paso Y' all do a great job! Mexico). Chris Garlock's article about public broadcasting in the U.S. A. re- NO JUSTIFICATION NORTH OF NO SOUTH quired no such distinctions and used the Shame on folks like Tyrus R. Cox ("Dia- Chris Garlock reviewed James Ledbetter's term "Americans "correctly. logue," February 27) who cite the cost of locking someone up for life as a reason to Write Dialogue support capital punishment. We rightly Correction In "The Other Dallas ISD" (February 27), bear the cost of removing dangerous indi- The Texas Observer viduals from society because we stand to "corruption at the school board" should 307 W. 7th St. Austin, TX 78701 gain from their absence, and because there have read, "corruption in the super- editors@texasobserver. org is no acceptable alternative. intendent's office." We regret the error.

MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 3 EDITORIAL We Are What We Are Forced to Eat On February 24 jurors in Amarillo decided that Oprah Winfrey and Howard Lyman were not liable for damages in the suit brought against them by a group of Texas cattle feeders led by millionaire cattleman Paul Engler. The plaintiffs' prospects had looked pretty dim ever since Judge Mary Lou Robinson ruled one week earlier, that they had failed to make a case under the Texas False Disparagement of Perishable Food Products law (the "veggie libel law"). Robinson allowed the suit to continue only under standard business disparagement statutes, thus setting the bar much higher for the plaintiffs. he plaintiffs will likely appeal the happened in Britain is that cows were in- surveillance that will only alert us to tragedy court's ruling that the product dis- fected by eating meat-and-bone meal after it has already arrived." paragement law did not apply in which contained the rendered remains of Standing between the public and "good Tthis case. Some observers on the other BSE-infected cows, and people con- data" — and more generally blocking the other side of the cattleguard had hoped that tracted CJD by eating BSE-infected beef; publication of information about food Carter appointee Robinson would strike so the U.S. government banned the feeding safety — are product disparagement laws. down the Texas law, but she didn't (per- of cud-chewing-animal-derived products Wealthy celebrities like Oprah can fight haps so as not to deprive herself of the op- to other cud-chewing animals in 1997. The and win lawsuits, but the threat of a law- portunity to preside over an upcoming suit ban does not apply to pigs or chickens, suit silences critics with shallower pock- even weirder than Cattlemen. v. Oprah: however, even though BSE has been ex- ets — a pleasing outcome for the laws' under the false disparagement law, a group perimentally transmitted to pigs. Under authors, who would prefer that questions of Texas emu farmers is suing Honda over current regulations, it would even be legal of food safety be resolved without any a television ad that portrayed emu farmers to feed TSE-positive materials to pigs, public discussion. as dupes). , chickens, or pets. Stauber and Rampton quote farmer and Little of the reporting on the trial con- Does this mean we should swear off eat- Illinois law professor Eric Freyfogle: "Do cerned mad cow disease itself. This is un- ing hot dogs? Not exactly, write Stauber and we know whether it is fully safe for humans fortunate because, as Sheldon Rampton and Rampton, for based on current, limited sci- to drink milk for 40 years from a cow given John Stauber point out in their well-re- entific understanding of the disease, TSEs [bovine growth hormone]...? The answer, searched and very readable 1997 book, could "pop up in medicines, plainly, is that we do not, no one knows, be- Mad Cow U.S.A. (Common Courage), the in organ transplants, in cause no one has ever done it.... The un- disease is poorly understood, and discus- gelatin (which is used in ev- derlying issue is this: Should we assume sion of it is too often discouraged by indus- erything from dessert mixes to that a product is safe until we have proven try and government spokesmen. medicine gel-caps), or in gar- otherwise, or should we assume it is unsafe Mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform den fertilizer made from ren- until its safety has been fully demon- encephalopathy (BSE) is one of a class of dered bone meal.... The truth / stated? ...The point here is diseases (transmissible spongiform en- is that the risks come from so 5 5 that debates about safety cephalopathies or TSEs), that includes the many directions and are so deal only in part with is- human Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. TSEs unpredictable that con- * sues of fact. There are can be transmitted from one species to an- sumers can't and * •important questions of other, and also occur sporadically at a rate shouldn't be expected to a • value here, and they of about one in a million. Last year, cope with those risks by need to be publicly Stauber and Rampton report, five unrelated selectively boycotting products 1LA debated, without the dan- patients in Western Kentucky were diag- suspected of harboring an unseen ger of being thrown nosed with CJD, and it was found that all infection. There are too many in jail or having one's of them had eaten squirrel brains (leading a bullets to dodge, and the shots savings drained through group of verbally graceful researchers to may be blanks anyway. What litigation." —K.O. urge "caution ... in the ingestion of this •ar- we need is good data, and in the boreal rodent"). meantime we need serious im- No one knows for certain what the risks plementation of measures to are of contracting CJD from food or other prevent the disease from animal products. The theory about what spreading — not just Don Cooper, from The Hereford Brand

4 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 DATELINE TEXAS La Migtut Goes Shopping BY NATE BLAKESLEE Austin In late January, hitting construction sites, landscaping firms restaurant and hotels, plainclothes Im- migration and Naturalization Service agents nabbed 234 undocumented workers in Austin. One hun- dred ninety-nine of the detainees were back in Mexico the morning after their capture according to a press release from INS regional headquarters in San Antonio.

ot mentioned in the press release explained, doesn't fit his agency's modus lot, Dudley suggested that this reporter call was any information about six operandi. "We go to job sites, we don't just the Border Patrol, whose agents, he said, men who had been wrongly de- pull in to some lot and say 'let's check for wear the familiar light green uniforms re- N tained, but INS spokesperson illegals,'" Dudley said. But Maria Loya, portedly seen in the HEB parking lot. The Ray Dudley said they were all released who works for the Austin immigrant aid Border Patrol is a separate enforcement within two hours. About a dozen others group El Buen Samaritano, says she has division of the INS (whose worksite inves- have requested hearings to challenge their heard numerous reports in recent months of tigators do not wear uniforms). And the deportation and are being held in a deten- raids on customers at several East Side gro- Border Patrol's primary task is, of course, tion facility in Laredo. "area containment" along the border, The arrest of legal residents may be old ALTHOUGH INS AGENTS ARE AUTHO- although the agency responds to tips about news to most Texans, but a new tactic the RIZED TO DETAIN SOMEONE WITH- illegal workers, usually in rural areas. INS is using at East Austin grocery stores OUT A WARRANT IF THEY BELIEVE Agents at the Border Patrol office closest to may not be so familiar. On the afternoon of THERE IS PROBABLE CAUSE, THEY Austin, about seventy miles away in Llano, January 19, several armed agents stationed ARE PROHIBITED FROM USING deny participating in any East Austin raid. themselves at the exits to the parking lot of PROFILES, WHICH ARE CONSIDERED They pointed out that plainclothes INS the HEB store on the corner of Riverside DISCRIMINATORY AND THEREFORE agents are often accompanied by uni- Drive and Pleasant Valley Road. According CONSTITUTIONALLY SUSPECT. formed detention agents (in the same light to eyewitnesses, the agents proceeded to green), who handle the delivery and incar- check systematically the identification of cery stores. Attorney Jim Harrington of the ceration of suspected undocumented immi- customers leaving the lot. Apparently their Texas Civil Rights Project has heard the grants. And they suggested a call to the timing was right. Witnesses say about thirty same stories. Harrington, who frequently INS. Spokespersons for the McAllen and persons were arrested and taken away in handles litigation involving the INS, has Laredo sectors of the Border Patrol (who INS vans. "The raid took place on a Mon- also heard complaints that agents are enter- couldn't even agree on which jurisdiction day, which was no accident," says East ing stores, walking the aisles, and methodi- Austin is in), each directed calls to his Side businessman and activist Marcelo cally selecting people for questioning. "As counterpart in the neighboring sector. Tafoya, "because that's when a lot of Mex- a practical matter," says Harrington, "they The agents themselves — unlike the of- ican workers go to buy their groceries. are employing what's called a 'profile' — ficial spokespersons — have fewer reserva- They live sometimes five or six to a house- how someone is dressed, how they talk, tions about their activities. Although he de- hold, and they'll buy maybe $200-$300 what they are purchasing." Although INS clined to be identified, a Border Patrol worth of food at a time." One East Side agents are authorized to detain someone agent contacted for this story confirmed nightclub owner, who declined to give his without a warrant if they believe there is that grocery stores are commonly targeted. name, said two of his employees were ar- probable cause, they are prohibited from "HEB is a good place to get 'em," he said, rested in the parking lot and deported that using profiles, which are considered dis- "...because that's where they shop, and same day. They promptly (and illegally) criminatory and therefore constitutionally where they cash their checks." There was crossed back into the United States and re- suspect. Although the issue of probable more specific confirmation of the raid on turned to Austin less than a week later. cause has always been a gray area, Har- the HEB lot. Nona Evans of HEB's Austin "They told me there were bags of groceries rington says, setting up a checkpoint in the district office confirms that something did just left in the lot," he said. "Nobody parking lot of an HEB is not. "That would happen on the parking lot in front of the thought to check if they had kids waiting be totally illegal," he said. Riverside HEB on January 19, but because for them at home, or what." That in itself might explain why no "HEB was in no way involved," she would Dudley says he has no knowledge of any agency claims responsibility for the park- not comment further. recent operations in Austin other than the ing lot raid. When asked about the uni- This much is clear: immigration agents January 26-30 raids. The HEB incident, he formed agents working in the HEB parking from some agency have been arresting

MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 5 DATELINE TEXAS

people while they shop for groceries in year. And 27,000 of those deportations agency that controls their status — or is at East Austin. And the immigration law occurred in Texas. least perceived to have that power. "It passed in 1997, which makes deportation "The fundamental problem with all INS doesn't really matter who's doing the quicker then ever, often results in a quick abuses," says Jim Harrington, "is that it is raids," Harrington explains. "People are

ride to the border — if a detainee cannot incredibly difficult to get people to sue." scared." ❑ convince agents that he has a right to re- Wrongfully deported people are not easy to main in the United States. Nearly 112,000 find, and resident aliens who may have a Frequent contributor Nate Blakeslee's persons were deported by the INS last year, case for false arrest or imprisonment are work has also appeared in The Nation, The a 62-percent increase from the previous too intimidated to speak out against the Progressive, and Earth First! Journal. Unsafe at Any Speed BY ROBERT BRYCE Its time to face the facts: the B-1 bomber is a failure The most recent B-1 crash, on February 18 in rural Kentucky, adds to the mountain of evidence that establishes the supersonic ground-hugging bomber as an unsafe unreliable, hyper-expensive airplane of negligible military value

et the $280-million-per-unit radar system hasn't worked, its avionics ately" the entire B-1 fleet. In 1996, the bomber stays aloft because it is were incompatible, and its skeleton devel- GAO suggested that Kaminski might be on powered by the most potent fuel in oped premature cracks. Those problems to something, when the agency reported yWashington: money. And some of appear to have been fixed. But upgrading that retiring the B-1 "would save about that money flows down hill — from Wash- the the B-1 fleet with modern weapons and $5.9 billion in budget authority for fiscal ington to Texas. Dyess Air Force Base in electronics systems will cost another $3 years 1997 to 2001." (Budgetwatchers' Abilene — the home of the plane that billion. In the meantime, according to the note: $5.9 billion is roughly equivalent to crashed in Kentucky — houses forty B-1 s, Air Force, the plane costs $10,986 per hour the annual budget of the Environmental twenty-nine C-130 cargo planes, and has a to stay aloft, an amount surpassed only by Protection Agency.) While admitting the $300-million impact on Abilene's economy. the equally useless $2-billion-per-copy B-2 move would "increase U.S. forces' depen- The B-1 has always been tied to Texas. dency on other capabilities and therefore The late Republican Senator John Tower ACCORDING TO AIR FORCE STATISTICS, the risk that some targets might not be hit was a booster of the plane from its earliest THE B-11 IS THREE TIMES MORE LIKELY as quickly as desired," the GAO said the stages. LTV built the B-1 fuselage at its TO BE INVOLVED IN SERIOUS ACCI- Pentagon had "more than ample ground-at- plant in Dallas. And Hans Mark, the former DENTS OR CRASHES THAN THE REST tack capability." In addition, according to Secretary of the Air Force who became OF THE AIRPLANES IN THE FLEET. the Pentagon, most targets "would be Chancellor of the University of Texas Sys- within the range of other forward-based tem, gets some of the credit for bringing the bomber, which costs about $14,000 per tactical aviation assets and missiles." Last plane back to life after Jimmy Carter killed hour to fly. September, the GAO determined that the it in 1977. More recently, Senator Kay Bai- The General Accounting Office has con- Air Force had overpaid a contractor who ley Hutchison, who serves on the Armed tinually uncovered cost over-runs, and safety was performing maintenance on the B-1 by Services Committee, and Congressman and mission-related problems with the B-1. $10 million. So even if the B-1 fails as a de- Charles Stenholm, who represents Abilene, In 1994, a GAO official told a congressional livery system for weapons, it obviously de- have been unabashed bi-partisan B-1 boost- committee, "The jury is still out on the ques- livers for shareholders, executives, and de- ers. Last July, they secured $20.5 million in tion of just how effective the B-1B aircraft fense plant workers. new construction funds for military family will be as a conventional bomber." Another Perhaps that's why the plane continues housing and a new B-1 maintenance facil- report that year found the plane could not fly to fly through a storm of statistics that ity at Dyess. effectively in cold, wet weather because it prove it is hopelessly unsafe. While all Never used in combat, the entire B-1 did not have a de-icing system. four crewmembers involved in the Ken- program has stayed in the repair shop since In 1995, Undersecretary of Defense Paul tucky accident ejected safely, four other the first plane arrived in Abilene in 1985. Kaminski suggested that the B-1' s critics officers were killed in a B-1 that crashed The bomber's engines have exploded or might be on target when he said the Pen- last September in Montana, in an accident failed to start, its fuel tanks have leaked, its tagon was considering "retiring immedi- the Air Force blamed the pilot. In 1992,

6 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 vtatwa•-•4MPV-v,N-" "-

A B-1 bombers at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene Robert Bryce

another B-1 crashed near Valentine, only the unguided 500-pound bombs that Yet Texas politicians — Hutchison, Texas, killing all four on board. The three have been in the American arsenal for Stenholm, and others — are resolved to accidents occurred during routine, low-al- decades. Given the American military's keep the B-1 flying. In a statement issued titude flights. According to Air Force promise to conduct a "surgical strike" on two days after the crash, Stenholm said, "In statistics, the B-1 is three times more Saddam's weapons factories, the B-1 will spite of this incident, the B-1 remains the likely to be involved in serious accidents remain on the tarmac even if diplomacy backbone of our bomber fleet." And, he or crashes than the rest of the airplanes in gives way to a military assault. added, the funding for the B-1 upgrade "re- the fleet. For the B-1, the lifetime rate for The B-1 is supposed to replace the B-52, inforces the Air Force's commitment to "Class A" mishaps — accidents involving which has been in service since 1952. But this important air power asset." loss of life or $1 million in damage — is the old B-52 — with a mishap rate one- It may be time to listen to the people on 4.02. For the Air Force, the current overall third that of the B-1 — is more reliable, the ground instead of the politicians. Randy rate is 1.37. The destroyed-aircraft rate for more versatile, and a helluva lot safer. In Rushing was a volunteer firefighter who the lifetime of the B-1 is 2.13. The current September of 1996, when the U.S. last was one of the first on the scene at the Ken- destroyed-aircraft rate (measured per dropped bombs in Saddam's backyard, the tucky crash site. Rushing told the Associ- 100,000 flying hours) for the Air Force Pentagon relied on sea-launched cruise ated Press that he had picked up the B-1's overall is 0.79. missiles and cruise missiles launched from co-pilot after he found him in a field. Ac- Recently, the Air Force bragged that the a B-52 that flew into the region from an air cording to Rushing, "He mainly said that bomber has been deployed in Southwest base in Diego Garcia. something went haywire." ❑ Asia, where it stands ready to be used The U.S. military has far more war-mak- against Iraq. But B- 1 s won't be used in ing capability than any of our adversaries. A Robert Bryce, a frequent contributor to the Iraq— unless the U.S. decides to give up its 1996 study by the Center for Defense Infor- Observer, is a contributing editor at the celebrated "smart" weapons. The B-1 was mation found that the U.S. has 3.5 times Austin Chronicle, where a version of this designed to drop nuclear warheads on the more military airplanes than Cuba, Iran, Iraq, story first appeared. Soviet Union, so it is capable of carrying Libya, North Korea, and Syria combined.

MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7 FEATURE

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Alan Pogue Dancin' With Molly Ivins BY MICHAEL KING Look ou4 LeAnn Rimes — here comes Miss Molly. The superstar country music ingenue had better start looking over her shoulder; because sultry- voiced newcomer Molly Ivins is hot on her trail.

vins, heretofore known primarily as an inkstained wretch title nicely catches both the demotic flavor of Molly's prose as well — er, a syndicated newspaper columnist and former as the foreboding implications of her subtitle, "Politics in the Clin- Observer editor — is about to make her national singing ton Years." Molly and I spent a couple of hours recently talking debut, at this month's South by Southwest music festival about the book (her third, after Nothin' But Good Times Ahead and in Austin. Fronting a band which includes (at least part of Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?) collected from her syndi- the time) Jerry Jeff Walker and Jimmy La Faye, Molly cated columns of the last five years. (the "Honkytonk Sweetheart") Ivins and Friends will be Molly began by translating the bit of folk wisdom that for her has headlining at the Cactus Café on Saturday night, March become the constant and debilitating undertone of the national po- 21. A world tour is rumored to be in the works — that is, if every- litical scene. When she and her editors began reviewing her recent body1 who reads this will repeat it to a few friends. writing, she says, they discovered her most recurrent theme: "the Actually, Molly hasn't quite yet abandoned her coruscating and corruption of politics by money." "As applied to politics," she ex- hilarious pen for an electric guitar, and the national tour she is about plains, 'You got to dance with them what brung you' means you to begin is in fact on behalf of her new book, You Got to Dance vote with the people who helped you get to office, who made it pos- With Them What Brung You. That undeniably honky-tonk Texas sible for you to get in office — and that pretty much means your big

8 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 contributors." Over the last few years, she had been aware that a new wave of political outrage was rising in the country, but only when she started to write the book's introduction did she recognize her own anger. "When I read it over I was really amazed. I had no idea I was so angry." Here's a taste of Molly Ivins' anger, from You Got to Dance: Our politicians have truly made a pact with the Devil. One watches them spend more and more of their time and energy grubbing, coaxing, flattering and whoring for money. Terrified of being cut off from the mother's milk, they stand like morons in the rising sea of contempt that threatens to drown the whole sys- tem. Then they wonder why no one likes them anymore. Molly has been covering politics since 1970, when she returned to her home state of Texas from a stint as I HAVE ALWAYS TRIED TO REMEMBER a reporter for the THAT THE CHIPS ON THE TABLE OF Minneapolis Tribune THIS GAME ARE PEOPLES' LIVES, to the Observer, WHICH IS SOMETHING I THINK A LOT where she stayed as OF US FORGET - POLITICIANS AND co-editor for six THE PEOPLE WHO WATCH THEM. years (and guardian angel now for nearly thirty). Since 1976, she has worked for The New York Times, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, currently the home of her column, syndicated in two hundred newspapers. Molly has followed Texas and national politics from Sharpstown to Watergate to Whitewater, and she says that in recent years, the political atmosphere — at least in its for- mal, electoral version — has indeed gotten worse. "I had been ob- serving this phenomenon, this rising tide of cynicism and disgust in politics, commenting on it with some concern, and I didn't real- ize how much I was part of the same phenomenon. And it really Alan Pogue took me by surprise. I've always loved watching politics, and I enjoy writing about politics. I love the vast, Dickensian cast of of what might happen to the bill and its amendments. But in listen- characters.... I even enjoy the game, the three-dimensional chess ing to the ripple and roar of her conversation — about politics, and the high-stakes poker, the strategy of it. I have always tried to journalism, scandals, music, just plain old gossip — it's hard to be remember that the chips on the table of this game are peoples' convinced that Molly Ivins can in fact be "angry, bitter, and dis- lives, which is something I think a lot of us forget — politicians gusted." One of her favorite after-dinner anecdotes ends with the and the people who watch them. But I have always liked politics, deathbed farewell of a good friend, civil rights lawyer Joe Rauh, and suddenly I find that I am angry, and bitter, and disgusted. who had fought undaunted for liberal causes, win or lose, through "Money has always been part of politics. Certainly as long as the the darkness of the McCarthy years: "Molly," he said, "tell 'em time I've been covering it, there hasn't been any noticeable degree of how much fun it was. Tell 'em how much fun it was." purity to the process. But we've not seen it like this, to this extent. Molly seems always to have taken Rauh's advice very much to And it's just — if you look at the money that puts people in public heart. She is inevitably, irrepressibly lively, brimming with jokes office now, it's all special interest money, and of the special interest and tall tales, jumping from one topic to another to retrieve a re- money ... over 60 percent is corporate special interest money. The membered laugh or insult, or suddenly up from her chair to dig out consequences are just absolutely disastrous: government of corpo- an old clipping or a new list of outrages that will find their way into rate special interests, by corporate special interests, for corporate an upcoming column. In the space of a few moments her voice riffs special interests. And it's not going to change until we change the from a fortissimo hoot to a seductive East Texas drawl to a natural rules, and get the corporate special interest money out of politics." comedienne's clipped whisper — and then there's that great rolling, rising laugh which, when it comes, feels like a warm spring oily is certainly serious about her life-long political com- rain. And despite her frankly glum short-term political diagnosis, mitments, and particularly about her ongoing battles on she remains insistently positive in overall outlook and optimistic in behalf of campaign finance reform. On the day we talked, spirit. Is it a rhetorical pose or a real conviction? "It's real opti- min the sunlit study of her home in south Austin, the McCain-Fein- mism, it's real optimism. It's partly that I am a congenital optimist; gold reform bill was hovering in the anterooms of the U.S. Senate and also, optimism is one of the ways I deal with the lunacy." In (about to be filibustered to death), and she was alert to the minutiae her book, after her frank summation of the Clinton years ("I

MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 suggested we call the book Nausea," she writes, "but they said it sit around and whine about government," she tells me, "as though wouldn't sell"), her somewhat brooding introduction concludes, it could not do anything right, is ridiculous. Government does a lot The good news is that it's fixable. In fact, it's fairly easy to fix. of things right, but we don't ever hear about them. The cussing of I'm too old to believe in simple solutions, but public campaign government has really gotten bad. finance is the place to start. Before we do anything else, we need "The government is just a tool, like a hammer. You can use it to to get the government off the corporate payroll. Put your money, build with, you can use it to destroy things. There's nothing intrinsi- marbles, and chalk into that one. cally good or evil about that hammer. If people sat around cussing Molly entertains no illusions about the deleterious effect of all hammers as much as they sit around cussing government, by now that corporate money on what is supposed to be representative gov- some Timothy McVeigh would have blown up the hammer factory." ernment, and the inevitable translation of corporate money into re- Molly's inveterate cheerfulness generally gets its hardest test actionary social policy. "Corporate special interests want people in when she turns her attention home to Texas, and she listens to her Congress who will give not only specific tax breaks and loopholes progressive friends bemoan the increasing Republicanization of and such things, but [who will encourage] just the general tilt of the state. Recently she used her column to reproach good-naturedly government toward the well-to-do in this country. Imagine, that the Times' Bob they would finally get a balanced budget last summer, and there is WE SAW IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVE- Herbert, who (un- all this pent-up demand for social services: there's a crying need to MENT, HOW MUCH THINGS CAN derstandably pro- spend money on education, and all these things that need attention. CHANGE, HOW FAST THINGS CAN voked by the accel- And what do they do? They decide to give tax breaks to the richest CHANGE. HOW POWERFUL PEOPLE erating rate of people in the country, for capital gains." ARE, HOW POWERFUL IDEAS ARE, AND Texas executions) Yet when I press her about the realistic chances for reforming a MASS MOVEMENTS ARE. AND, HOW had described the political system in which all the major players are already be- MUCH GOOD GOVERNMENT CAN DO. state as a political holden to corporate power, her response is immediate. "I know the wasteland for liber- answer to that one: democracy still works. The thing about politi- alism. Molly considers such a view of Texas woefully short- cians is they're goosey. And they're especially goosey if they have sighted. "We have two consolations," she argues. "One is that to vote really bad. Remember when they gave themselves a sneak things are even more hilarious than usual. The entertainment factor raise, and every radio talk-show host in the country went nuts and is really quite high. And also, the state is dominated by short-term the voters responded and sent in all these letters, and they had to go thinking. Here is absolutely everybody saying the state is getting back and unvote their raise? They were in a total panic. You can more Republican every day, it's getting more Republican by the get them to move; all you have to do is get enough folks to care day. But Texas is going to be a majority-minority state by the year about it." And that, she believes, is the job of journalists. 2004. It may take a generation to have an 'effect, but there it is — Later she reminds me that she comes by her political optimism and the Republicans are doing exactly all the right things for their honestly, because she herself came of age in a Texas that legally de- own long-term destruction in this state. They couldn't do it any nied the most basic civil rights to black and brown people, and ex- better, if we authored the script for 'em." The thought of George pected women to stay in their places as well. If that kind of tyranny W. Bush, Rick Perry, and Tom Pauken preparing the way for a could be overcome and outlasted, she argues, so can Newt Gin- coming generation of progressive minority political activism fills grich, Tom DeLay, and George W. Bush. She looks back on her Molly with delight. long years of reportage and they provide her with a wry perspective. But what about the short and medium term — during which the "The beauty of Texas," she laughs, "is that it's really hard to argue Texas powers-that-be will install tort deform, and welfare deform, that things are getting worse. I mean, no matter what they come up and school vouchers, and privatization, etc. etc., up to our choking with, when you've been around here for twenty-eight years, you can necks? She has a Molly-esque answer for that, too. "In the medium sit around and remember when things were really ridiculous. term, we serve the very important function as The National Labo- "I grew up before the civil rights movement in this state, and I ratory for Bad Government: Really Bad Ideas, Tried First Here, came of age in the sixties, and my first political involvement was and Proven Not to Work." And for writers, a gold mine: we will with the civil rights movement. I think that's enough to make you not lack for material in the New Texas. both a liberal, and permanent optimist. We saw in the civil rights movement, how much things can change, how fast things can hen Molly and her co-editor Kaye Northcott (now an ed- change. How powerful people are, how powerful ideas are, and itor at the Star-Telegram) ran the Observer, they were al- mass movements are. And, ho' w much good government can do, Wmost unique amidst a Legislature and a press corps that when government turned around, and the feds were the good guys." had seen precious few women, and certainly none like these. But Molly insists that she is not one of those liberals who, "as young Molly had most recently come off the police beat in Min- Ronald Reagan would say, 'think that government is always the neapolis, and was already an old hand at ingratiating herself in a answer.'" But in the current media atmosphere of blaming govern- male world. "There had been one woman television reporter from ment for everything that goes wrong, Molly has found herself in a Houston.... She was no longer there, but there was still a fair curious position for a journalist, of defending government from its amount of resentment against her, because she had sort of made a noisiest right-wing detractors. ("Cussing government in a democ- habit of interrupting the other reporters, and saying, 'Oh, Senator, racy is a peculiar thing to do," she writes. "It is, after all, us.") "To would you mind just coming over here for a few moments and just

10 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 answering some of my little ol' questions?' And it really irked the search for personal "scandal," as opposed to reporting the real guys on the press corps. structure of power and politics, for the growing national cynicism "That wasn't the way I operate anyway, but I worked real hard about politics, and for the abandonment, especially by the rich and at being 'one of the guys.' And I succeeded to such a horrifying ex- powerful, of the whole notion of a social contract. And she be- tent that one day I was sitting in the press box between the Dallas lieves those chickens will come home to roost. "We're all in this

Morning News and the American - Statesman, when one of the together. The public schools are a big item — if they destroy that, young lovelies who worked as a Senate page wiggled by, and the all bets are off.... DMN hit me in the ribs from one side with his elbow, and said, "You cannot buy your way out of the consequences of letting the `Jesus, Ivins, look at the ass on that one,' and the Statesman hit me public sphere go to hell. There's not enough money in this life to buy from the other side, and said, 'Christ, look at those tits.' I sat there, yourself a private security force, like big rich people in South Amer- and began to think, 'You know, I've taken this too far.'" ica, and private armies, and private everything. What happens is, the Molly says the ground-level sexism has now pretty much disap- country becomes more and more of a disaster area, and there's no peared ("Women reporters can get hired equally, and they can get way you can run away from that." The environmental movement, good assignments") but that when it comes to promotion into upper she says, is an important sign of the reaction against radical selfish- management, the glass ceiling remains a reality. "It's present in ness. "There are real, visible consequences in the environment — every business, including politics and journalism." there are real consequences in having Fly-By-Night Garbage of New We were talking, of course, in the midst of the Monica Lewin- Jersey take, care of nuclear waste. This is not that hard to notice." sky scandal, and though Molly had some harsh words for Clinton ("it's completely destroyed his credibility"), she was harsher about ut should the lunacy get just too much to bear, Molly can now her journalistic colleagues, particularly the Washington press turn to her whole new career, as what she laughingly calls "a corps, which she says has misread and overblown the scandal, in B recording artiste." The music gig actually started as "a band the meantime corrupting the useful word "character" to mean only of singin' arthurs" led by novelist Stephen King and humor colum- "sex." "They are as clueless as I have ever seen them. There were nist Dave Barry. They call themselves the Rock-Bottom Remain- Clinton's numbers going higher and higher, and that has nothing to ders, and Molly is "very loosely associated" with the band, as a "Re- mainderette" (novelists Amy Tan and Barbara Kingsolver have also do with Bill Clinton. That's anti - media. And those smug, self-im- portant, pompous, arrogant bastards on television, sitting there jus- sung with the group). San Francisco literary rep Kathi Goldmark de- tifying what they've done, is just disgusting." Molly lays much of the blame on the press and its relentless PFQ COMPUTING "THE PASSION FOR QUALITY" Best Documentary 00 South By Southwest 000 Film Festival OtA. GO We'd like to share our passion with you...

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MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 11 cided that with a little cross-country organization, the Remainders And you can't judge a daughter, by looking at the mother, could raise money for literacy. That got Molly and Friends into an And you can't judge a book, by looking at the cover. Austin studio, recording the Kitty Wells version of "The Wild Side In that star-struck moment, I could swear I hear, in there some- of Life" (i.e., "It wasn't God who made honky-tonk angels"). "Of where, distant echoes of another rebel East Texan, Janis Joplin. course I improved the lyrics slightly," says Molly, "because I am a Molly, however, does not quite have stars in her eyes. "Now I writer. As in, 'From the start, most every heart that's ever broken, should point out that the name of Kathi Goldmark's label is Don't it's because there always was some prick to blame.'" She was sur- Quit Your Day Job Productions. The name is very well chosen." prised when Goldmark also asked her to sing a verse of a rock song But just the thought of herself on a forthcoming recording, ("I can barely sing at all, let alone a rock song"), but overcame her singing up a storm in the distinguished tradition of Bo Diddley, initial hesitation "with the help of all my real musician friends." sends Molly Ivins into another fit of rolling, wonderful laughter.

Lo and behold, I am treated to Molly Ivins' spirited, husky con- She's obviously thinking how much fun it is. ❑ tralto, in an a capella version of the old Bo Diddley tune, tenta- tively at first, and then just belted out: Following her appearance at the Cactus Café (U.T.—Austin) Well, you can't judge the honey, by looking at the bee, March 21, Molly Ivins will be at Book People in Austin, March 24 And you can't judge an apple, by looking at the tree, (7 p.m.), and at Brazos Books in Houston, March 26 (7 p.m.).

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12 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998

BERNARD RAPOPORT American Income Life Insurance Company Chairman of the Board and EXECUTIVE OFFICES: P.O. BOX 2608 WACO, TEXAS 76797 (817) 772-3050 Chief Executive Officer

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ent, restraint, and professionalism.

teworthy that David 13roder of the Wash/n, to graciously refer to the allegatio

wom f Le until then, can them e swore under oath in t with such oblique or clottitful person no sexual relations wi that do not rise to the level of reportable all The press also had art-time In§ dtl, the feverish media are sprawling from unid zy, Starr, who is the all-purpose investiga 0 1' non-existent allegations to repeated hypothetical questr working actively as a senior partner WI as "If these allegations are true, it's all over for Clinton," t i Kirkland & Ellis on behalf of major com polls based on these hypothethicals which are then repo from — yes— the Clinton Administrat back to the people to further hype the reporting. Lewinsky tapes and leaks to reporters, o From Newsweek's Evan Thomas ("explosion with the allega- So what the newspapers, magazines and television-radio have tions") to The New York TiMeS' Frances Clines ("a verifitie uni- been conveying to the public are rumors, speculation, hearsay, verse of allegations") to Tim Russert inviting the on-line, reck- and gossip based on the excited utterances of Ms. Lewinsky in a less sludge merchant, Matt Drudge, to his Meet the Press Table private conversation with what she thought was a friend. The with columnist William Safire, Newsweek's Mike lsikoff and legal media validly could report an investigation under way, but who columnist Stuart Taylor, the bottom fell out of establishment has made any allegations that would lead to the riotous, almost journalism last month. breathless behavior by the press corps in Washington, D.C.? The collapse of journalistic standards of fairness, accuracy For example, how many times have you heard, "If the allega- and proportionality has precedents, to be sure. One could easily tions are true, this is the end of the Clinton Presidency," or "He'll see it coming in recent years. have to resign in days," or "He'll be impeached by Congress.' But this media meltdown will be partially shielded from depth- From George Will to Sam Donaldson to Tim Russert to George less shame, only if the facts catch up to the rioters and spare Stephanopoulos to Cokie Roberts to the McLaughlin crew to E.J. them. Otherwise, lots of prominent but precipitous reporters and Dionne to James Glossman to the experienced reporters at the editors will have damaged themselves, and that precious asset New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street known as public confidence.

■ 13 MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER MOLLY IVINS Government for Sale Thanks to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and all the peacemakers around the globe including those who ruined the administrations television show in Ohio. If we put just half as much money into working for peace as we do into preparing for war, we wouldn't have to contemplate killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people in order to accomplish jack nd now that we've spent not-enough- costs them personally. legislation to alter rules on food safety sig- time on the obligatory "whew-and- Last week, the Senate once more took nificantly. The changes, scattered throughout thanks," let me suggest that we up the McCain-Feingold bill, a much-wa- several bills, have been proposed by Repub- shift our focus to a little matter of tered-down version of campaign finance re- licans to limit the federal government's au- the first priority. Something more important form but one that would have the happy effect thority to regulate not only food safety but than war and peace? The economy? of banning soft money (the unlimited swag also health and the environment. Jobs? Poverty? The homeless? Education? that goes to parties instead of candidates). Be- "Taken together, the bills would reduce Housing? Yup. cause the Republican Party gets the biggest the burden on business to prove that food is Why don't we spend just half as much share of soft'money, it opposes reform. safe and would increase the burden on gov- money on ensuring peace as we do on Now, this same Senate has just spent an ernment agencies to prove that proposed preparing for war? Because peace groups entire year and $3.5 million investigating rules would reduce risks to the public and don't make big campaign contributions, and the fund-raising abuses of the 1996 presi- would be worth the cost. The bills would weapons manufacturers make huge ones. In dential campaign. All those lurid tales also expand the food industry's chances to fact, weapons manufacturers contribute so about fund-raising in Buddhist temples and appeal the rules in court." much money to politicians that politicians at White House coffees, all the righteous Connect the dots. Follow the bouncing often vote to spend the public's money on indignation and calls for Attorney General ball. A report just released by Common weapons we don't need and even on Janet Reno to appoint a special prosecutor Cause, "Pocketbook Politics," shows how weapons that are pretty useless. — now is their chance to do something powerful special interests — helped by More concerned about the economy than about it, now is their chance to fix it. Watch generous campaign contributions — have campaign finance? Why do you think the them verrrry closely. won victories in Washington that are cost- bottom 50 percent of the people in this Want an example of how this affects ing the American consumer. Since 1991, "booming economy" have yet to get back to your life? According to the Center for Re- the special interests examined in the report where they were before the last recession? sponsive Politics, during the first half of doled out more than $61.3 million in polit- Why do you think Congress, after years and 1995, meat and poultry PACs distributed ical contributions — nearly $24.6 million years of cutting and cutting and cutting so- $338,205 — 81 percent of it to Republi- of that in unregulated soft money contribu- cial programs, took a great swag of money cans. Of the total amount, $73,987 went to tions. What did it cost you? last summer — before we had a balanced House Agriculture Committee members, ■ $550 million because of lost access to budget — and gave it to the wealthiest peo- with Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas com- generic drugs. ple in this country in the form of tax cuts? ing out as the top recipient. ■ $59 billion annually at the gas pump be- Because the wealthy give big campaign June 28, 1995, Associated Press: "A key cause for three years Congress has frozen contributions, and people in need do not. House panel voted Tuesday to block the the fuel efficiency standards. Go right on down the list, and the answer first sweeping proposal to reform meat and ■ $2.8 billion annually from the jump in every time, in every area of governance, is poultry inspections since 1906, despite cable TV bills and pay phone rates that fol- that decisions are not made according to warnings from consumer groups that the lowed the 1996 Telecommunications Act. what the people need or what is best for the action could be deadly. ■ $1.6 billion in sugar and peanut subsidies. country — decisions are made according to "The House Appropriations committee And that, to coin a phrase, is like the tip who gave how much money. voted 26-15 to withhold funds for the De- of that thing that hit the Titanic. That's why it's especially frustrating to partment of Agriculture's planned changes And to coin a future phrase, here is see polls showing that most Americans to the inspection system unless the meat in- today's Campaign Finance Slogan: "It's favor campaign finance reform but they dustry is allowed to help re-write them. government by the people — not people buy don't think it's all that important. Just The USDA changes were designed to use the government." Our reader response to last scouting around the country myself, I have modern scientific techniques to cut down summer's slogan drive was incredible. ❑ yet to find anyone who doesn't "get it," who on the 4,000 deaths and 5 million illnesses Molly Ivins is a former Observer editor and doesn't see the connection between cam- from contaminated meat every year." a columnist for the Fort Worth Star- paign contributions and political corrup- From The New York Times, July 1995: "In Telegram. You may write to her via e-mail tion. But they have no idea how much it the next few weeks, Congress will consider at [email protected].

14 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 JIM HIGHTOWER Give Us Your Rich.. . And you thought the IRS had an attitude problem. Check out the visa officers in some of our foreign consulates who issue travel permits to tourists who want to visit America.

o Statue of Liberty romanticism time Goober winner, but given her posi- alike saying they plan to "fix" our Social for these people, no "send me tion, I'll bet it won't be her last. Ms. Eitel Security System. Fix it? How about they your tired, your poor, your hud- has been named to a prestigious new job: just stop hurting it? dled masses." According to The Vice President for Corporate and Social Latest example is Bill Clinton's highly- N Responsibility at the Nike corporation. touted "zero-deficit budget," announced New York Times, our visa officers in Brazil are instructed as a matter of official policy Gosh, that's a heavy load to shoulder, February 2. Headlines everywhere ex- to reject tourist applicants on the basis of huh? The giant shoemaker, a notorious claimed, "First Balanced Budget in 30 their appearance. For example, on the appli- sweatshop exploiter, announced that Years," noting that Clinton's 1999 federal cation of a 24-year-old technician who she'll now be responsible for shaping up budget actually will show a $10 billion sur- wanted to visit Disney World, the officer Nike's labor practices. Company presi- plus. Good news, right? wrote: "Slimy looking. Wears jacket on dent Thomas Clarke declared that the hir- Not if you're counting on getting Social shoulders with earring." Likewise, a 23- ing of Ms. Eitel "signals Nike's commit- Security when you retire. To make his bud- year-old Brazilian who wanted to come to ment from the top to be a leader ... in get "balance," Clinton quietly reached into America for the World Cup soccer champi- global corporate citizenship." the Social Security Trust Fund — a fund onships was rejected by the initials "LP! ! ! !" Wow, she must be a tiger! Probably has that is supposed to be used for nothing but scrawled on her document. The initials a lot of experience in the fight against paying out benefits to future retirees. Clin- stand for "Looks poor." worldwide labor exploitation. It'll take a ton took $100 billion from the fund, leav- Indeed, the consulate has a five-page tough cookie to bend the Nike swooshtika ing us with an I.O.U. Without this money, manual instructing visa officers to use toward justice, so let's check her creden- his budget wouldn't balance — instead of a such abbreviations as "TP — talks poor," tials: Let's see, Maria Eitel has been a tele- $10 billion budget surplus, there would and "LR — looks rough" to screen out ap- vision reporter, a White House have been a $90 billion deficit. plicants. The officers seem to get in the spokeswoman for the Bush Administra- In other words, his "zero-deficit" is a spirit of rejecting anyone with a hint of tion, and a corporate affairs manager for flim-flam, a con-game. Bush did the same poverty in their profile: "No way," an offi- Microsoft. What? She's a PR flak, a politi- thing — Reagan, too. Presidents and the cer wrote on one woman's application. cal spinmeister, a corporate con artist! Congress have routinely been looting our "Poor, poor, poor." We're to believe that she'll hold Nike's Trust Fund to make their deficits look This despicable practice comes to light golden feet to the fire? smaller. Already, they've taken $600 bil- thanks to the efforts of Bob Olsen, himself Who do they think they're kidding? lion from it — money owed us when we a former visa officer in Brazil. Appalled by In her Nike debut, Ms. Eitel sounded reach retirement age. Then, these cynical the practice he found, Olsen refused to use more like a lapdog than a watchdog, declar- politicians tell us that to "save social secu- the agency profiles — and soon found him- ing that criticism of the company's labor rity," dire measures are needed, like in- self rejected by the State Department for practices have not been justified because creasing our eligibility age to seventy. "failure to adjudicate visa applications with this is "a very complex issue." What a Clinton even piously proclaimed that to the requisite speed and good judgment re- goober. There's nothing complex about the help shore up the Social Security Trust quired by the job." He was chastised be- fact that Nike hires teenage girls in Asia to Fund, he wants to donate that $10 billion cause "he refuses to compromise with his make its pricey shoes, pays them sub- surplus in his new budget. But wait — he own convictions." poverty wages, and allows them to be only has that surplus because he took $100 Good for Bob! The good news is that a abused in the workplace. Nike's new "VP billion out of the Fund. judge has now ruled that Mr. Olsen should- for Corporate Responsibility" is just an- It's like someone stealing $100 from n't be fired, but praised. other public relations cover-up. you, then wanting a pat on the back for re- They can put French perfume on a turning $10 to you. Do we have sucker

IF IT SMELLS LIKE... skunk, but it still won't hide the stink. wrappers around our heads? ❑ Here it comes again: Hightower's "Goober- head Award," given periodically to promi- FLIM-FLAM BUDGETING Jim Hightower is a former Observer editor nent figures who have their mouths running There's an old country song that goes, "It and Agriculture Commissioner who at full speed, but don't seem to have their felt so good when it stopped hurting." preaches the populist gospel nationwide on brains in gear. Well, that's my sentiment exactly when- his daily Hightower Radio show. Today's awardee is Maria Eitel, a first- ever I hear Republicans and Democrats

MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15 POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

WORKINGMAN'S FRIENDS. A February 13 Texas Supreme Court decision has made it easier for employers to fire employees in- jured on the job, and to diminish the bene- fits of those who seek a lawyer or sue. The question of whether a company that does not subscribe to the state worker's compensation act would still be affected by the law prohibiting retaliatory firings was brought to the state's high court by Lawrence P. Bouchet. According to an arti- cle by Mary Flood in the Wall Street Jour- nal (February 25), in 1987 Bouchet was a general foreman with the Texas Mexican Railway Company in Laredo when he fell on a rail car, rupturing two disks. Because he was not satisfied with the company's settlement proposal, Bouchet filed suit; three months later, the company stopped paying his salary in apparent retaliation. Bouchet won in lower courts, but the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the law against retaliatory firings and benefit de- creases applies only to "employers who act under the Texas Workers Compensation Act." Since the railroad company is a "non- Scott Van Osdol subscriber" to the Act, the court ruled the passed a resolution calling upon Christians modern society we have means of keeping company had the right to fire Bouchet. for active opposition to the death penalty. an offender from harming others." United Workers' advocates believe this decision On Ash Wednesday (February 25), repre- Methodist Bishop Joe A. Wilson, head of could have devastating effects for employ- sentatives of various denominations asked the 25-county Central Texas Conference, ees injured on the job, and is specifically an Texans to show support for the statement told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "When additional incentive for businesses to leave by writing their legislators demanding an we destroy a human life, either through the state's optional workers' comp system. end to capital punishment. The state of crime or capital punishment, we have pre- John Wall, a Dallas employment attorney Texas has conducted thirty-seven execu- vented the possibility of redemption or re- who had supported Bouchet's case, said tions in the last year, including the widely habilitation." Other representatives present that employers will now be able to opt out publicized death of Karla Faye Tucker. at the press conference said there is no evi- of the state's compensation plan and fire "The Karla Faye Tucker execution, dence that capital punishment deters vio- workers without repercussions. Texas is tragic as it was, was only one in a series of lent crime or comforts the victim's family. the only state that does not require that tragedies in Texas," Roman Catholic businesses carry the worker's comp cover- Bishop Joseph P. Delaney said, in an inter- NAMING NAMES? State health officials say age. According to the Texas Research and view with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. the number of reported AIDS cases in Oversight Council on Worker's Compen- The TCC's resolution states, as one of the Texas has remained stable, leveling off sation, almost forty percent of state em- reasons for its rejection of capital punish- after a peak in 1993, and the number of ployers choose not to be covered by the ment, the fact that "evidence is overwhelm- AIDS-related deaths in the state is down 10 worker's compensation system. ing that racism, classism, and economics percent. Yet the health department is ready Business groups have generally ap- are governing factors in administering the to collect and record the names of Texans plauded the Court's decision. According to death penalty; and that greater numbers of testing HIV-positive. Steve Bent, executive director of the Texas people of color are executed than is re- Texas currently uses a tracking system Association of Responsible Nonsubscribers, flected in the general population; that men- that assigns people with HIV a code, which the only worry they have is that the decision tally incapacitated people and far too many uses information such as gender, race, and might provoke a debate on the issue. poor and uneducated people have been ex- part of the Social Security number, instead ecuted — thus demonstrating the injustice of names. The state only gathers names in STOP RITUAL MURDER. The Texas Confer- of the current practice of exercising the cases of children with HIV or of adults ence of Churches, an ecumenical group of death penalty." whose infections have progressed to AIDS. numerous Christian denominations repre- The resolution also describes capital This protects patients' privacy, and keeps senting 9.5 million Texas members, has punishment as unnecessary because "in our them safe from the discrimination HIV

16 ■ 1HE 1EXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998

patients still experience. However, Dr. York) describing the popular opposition to Texas Right to Life Committee, the Senate Charles Bell of the Bureau of HIV a4d STD the war. Anchor Bob Edwards cut Floun- tabling of the McCain-Feingold legislation Prevention at the Texas Departnrient of ders off before she could finish (which he was a historic defeat of ruthless pro-abor- Health says this system just isn't working. did to no other speaker), and her brief re- tionists. Joseph Graham, president of State health officials argue that the new marks (e.g. "Seven years ago, against the Texas Right to Life, congratulated Sena- treatments available today allow people Gulf War, it took three months of military tors Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchi- with HIV to live longer before the develop- mobilization before there was large oppo- son for helping to defeat the legislation, ment of AIDS, and specialists recommend sition. Now there is already opposition") which would have restricted the use of earlier treatment for those infected. Without even disappeared from NPR's official tran- "soft money" to run thinly disguised "issue adequate control of the affected population, script of the broadcast. advertising" actually intended to influence officials say they cannot plan adequately. May the first medal of the new Iraqi cam- elections. The reform legislation, said Gra- The proposal, however, has met with paign be awarded to those brave Ohio peace- ham, was being promoted by "special in- widespread opposition. Town hall meet- makers; and may Bernard, Judy, Bob and the terest groups such as the League of Women ings in Arlington and Houston have drawn rest be sentenced to live on a sanction-deter- Voters and Common Cause in an effort to thirty groups (including the American mined Iraqi diet for a month, before they are silence the growing, organized voice of Civil Liberties Union) who oppose the allowed to file their next "reports." common Pro-Life/Pro-Family citizens." state's reporting HIV patients by name. Next time you hear those smiling re- Jamie Schield, of the AIDS Resource Cen- DON'T CALL US. What if you held a town formists promising that public campaign fi- ter in Dallas, told the Abilene Reporter- meeting and nobody came? If you're the nancing would mean less special interest in- News that requiring names will prevent Texas Natural Resource Conservation fluence on government, don't believe them people from coming forward to be tested, Commission, that's called public input. — they're only trying to silence the unborn. leaving them without knowledge of their The TNRCC has inaugurated a six-week condition, or education and support. The series of "town hall" meetings around the DUNCANVILLE TO D.C. Donovan Campbell Center will hold the next town hall meeting state to discuss "strategic planning" — but Jr. has successfully sued the Duncanville to discuss the proposal on Wednesday, hasn't bothered to invite the public. Almost school board on behalf of students' "right to March 18, 6-8 p.m. (2701 Regnery Street, nobody turned out for the first meetings in El pray" before and after each basketball Dallas). The Health Department expects to Paso and San Angelo (because the agency game. In Del Rio, he countersued for a make a decision in March or April. had done zero publicity), and a February 26 church that had excommunicated a woman meeting at Arlington's North Central Texas because she left her husband and four chil- MANAGED NEWS. Thus far the highlight of Council of Governments building was nearly dren to live with another man. The woman, the media's new Gulf War campaign was cancelled when the TNRCC only notified who had sued the church for slander, claim- CNN's exclusive February 18 broadcast of a COG officials the day before. Dallas environ- ing the congregation labeled her "an adul- so-called "town meeting" at Ohio State Uni- mentalists who hastily organized to testify tress," lost and agreed to apologize to the versity, planned as a White House staged said they waited for an hour for somebody church and pay its legal expenses. Now event worthy of the Politburo. Fortunately, a even to open the building. Campbell is representing Paula Corbin handful of ordinary citizens refused to play TNRCC watchers also report that Com- Jones, and according to a profile in the along. Instead, they fiercely questioned the missioner Barry McBee used a recent Dallas March 1 addition of The New York Times, assembled dignitaries, loudly declaimed speech to blast the press, particularly the Dal- Campbell's "cleverest move [in the Paula their opposition to what is indeed a "racist las Morning News, for insufficiently favor- Jones case] may have been his successful war," and embarrassed poor Bernard Shaw able coverage of agency initiatives. effort to amend Ms. Jones's complaint and Judy Woodruff in their eagerly assumed According to a press release we coaxed against the state trooper she said took her to roles of palace scribes. The next-day's reac- out of the agency, additional meetings for Governor Clinton's suite." The lawsuit, tion from the national press? The networks March include Beaumont (March 9), which Campbell picked up from the complained that they hadn't been allowed Amarillo (March 12), Harlingen (March lawyers Jones fired, no longer contends that the same broadcast rights as CNN, and the 16), Corpus Christi (March 17), San Anto- the trooper's remarks to a magazine dam- pundits blamed the White House for allow- nio (March 19). For more information call aged her reputation. Her claim of a dam- ing these protestors to "send the wrong mes- the TNRCC at (512) 239-5000, or check aged reputation could have allowed the sage" to Saddam Hussein. the web site at www.tnrcc.state.tx.us . trooper's lawyers to introduce evidence of Less noticed but just as telling was Na- her previous sexual behavior. The Presi- tional Public Radio's February 17 special CAMPAIGN FINANCE ABORTED. Maybe dent's past sexual history, however, is still edition of "All Things Considered," which you thought campaign finance reform is fair game in the lawsuit. Campbell was re- featured eighty-nine minutes of warmon- about getting the obscene amounts of cor- cruited by the Rutherford Institute, based in gering "experts" discussing the most effi- rupting money out of the political system, Charlottesville, Virginia. His legal practice, cient ways of destroying Iraq, and one so that democracy — one person, one vote Rader, Campbell, Fisher & Pyke, has been minute of a war opponent (Sara Flounders — can begin to work again. organized to reflect the religious beliefs of Times. of the International Action Center in New Wrong -0,, green breath.. According to the the law partners, according to the ❑

MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17 BOOKS & THE CULTURE

To Three Friends Each in his way, people help out each other. A resilient small society of friends Shows caring, more or less, the degree unimportant, And often not measured to your sense of loss. Your dog was run over in the street. Your parents Died. A cyclonic wind split down a branch Into your car. A great friend swatted a fly Automatically with the flat of his hand Within your car, shattering the windshield. Your favorite sports team lost big in the playoffs. A burglar stole your stereo and TV While you were visiting your sister. You The Internet Comes to Our Office Lost the woman you loved and wanted to marry They have placed a computer in our office Thirty years ago, and now you are pushing sixty. like a pot turned on its side You get no solace out of buying clothes. spilling clicks and colors You will soon join the Dead Poets. But society and labyrinths of connection. Saves you from neurosis and paranoia. It flashes dire and pouty messages Your friends gather round you like a neighborhood of failed attempts, abortions, Of chicken soup and, each in his own way, faulty commands. What I need They give you the help and love you need to live. is never behind its icons. As in an electronic shell game THOMAS WHITBREAD I turn each one over, looking for my nugget. I am always waiting for an hourglass to reveal my fortunes. I haven't learned to spell its spells and I conjure what I don't really want. Colleagues are drawn, one by one, to its cauldron of light and webs. And enchanted — what else? — are those who drink deeply. —MARGIE MCCRELESS ROE

homas Whitbread teaches in the Department of English sons. She now lives in the San Antonio area. Her work has at U.T.-Austin, and was Poetry Consultant for The Texas appeared in many places, including Bird Watcher's Digest and The TObserver for many years. He is a past winner of the Texas Christian Science Monitor. Institute of Letters poetry prize. Both poems celebrate linkages which sustain us — in many Margie McCreless Roe was born in Fort Worth and has lived in lives, recently, the internet feels like a fourth friend. Georgetown, Dallas, Austin, San Angelo, Corpus Christi, La —Naomi Shihab Nye Grange, Mason, and Brady with her preacher husband and two

18 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 BOOKS & THE CULTURE ► Romantic Lone-Star Populism Ivins' New Collection Considers the Clinton Era BY KAREN OLSSON

YOU GOT TO DANCE WITH THEM WHAT BRUNG YOU: Politics in the Clinton Years. By Molly Ivins. Random House. 245 pages. $23.00.

n the summer of 1970, a 25-year- old, six-foot-tall, redheaded jour- nalist loaded her two cats and her rubber plant into her Mercury and drove from Minnesota to Texas, to become co-editor of the Texas Ob- server. Though she'd grown up in Houston, Molly Ivins had gone east to college (Smith), then on to journalism 1school at Columbia, then to Minneapolis where she won a slew of awards as a reporter v•ax1/4•:.\ for the Minneapolis Tribune. Nonetheless Texas was home, as she informed readers of the August 21 issue: "I can't help it. I love the state of Texas. It's a harmless perversion." "I love the gritty, down-on-the-ground quality of Texans," she wrote, "their love of a good yarn and the piss and vinegar of their speech.... and I like the pleasant open vul- garity of Texans." Perhaps she was over-ro- manticizing the state, Ivins conceded, but so Alan Pogue what — it was good to be home. As for Texas politics, there was little for herself to this magazine, which she would English that stands out in the early Ob- Observer writers and readers to romanticize co-edit, along with Kaye Northcott, for al- server piece. (Said Virginia to Vita, I must that summer: incumbent Senator Ralph most six years. Even in her opening words, confess that I rather relish the political sit- Yarborough had lost to Lloyd Bentsen in Ivins invoked the sense of humor and the uation here....) The high English is still the previous spring's Democratic primary; love of politics-as-carnival (Texas politics there in her recent book, along with the U.T. Board of Regents Chairman Frank in particular, a carnival in which the barker Texanisms. Throughout her career as a re- Erwin was doing his best to suppress cam- has a hangover and the freaks have run porter and columnist for various publica- pus protests and edge out respected schol- amok) that still fill her work. tions, Ivins has shown herself to be not just ars; "everyone in the state left of Grover That introductory Observer piece con- a journalist who knows how to drawl but a Cleveland," wrote Ivins, "appears to be in tained a bit of contradiction: in the eyes of populist stylist, fashioning a vernacular normal disarray." its writer, Texas is home but real Texans that blends the high, the low, and the Lone- "But I must confess," she continued, "that are "them": yarn-spinners who didn't go Staresque, preaching and irony, Shake- I rather relish the political situation here, if east to school. And though a reader glanc- speare and sumbitches. only because there is no shortage of proper ing at Ivins' latest collection of columns, villains in Texas. The battles are so lifeless You Got To Dance With Them What B rung ne of the bad things about being a elsewhere, ever fought on tedious shades of You, would likely notice the Texanisms — journalist is that some piece you gray. Down here the baddies wear black her prose is sprinkled with words like O knocked off years and years ago, hats and one can loathe them with a cheerful "whomperj awed" and "fantods" and minutes before deadline, can be dug up and conscience." Thus Molly Ivins announced "'em"—it is the arch deployment of high subjected to scrutiny — so it may be un-

MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19 sportsmanlike to go rooting through a re- porter's decades-old work. It's interesting nevertheless to read Ivins' current book against an unscientific and quite possibly unfair sampling of those seventies Ob- servers. There is a column in You Got To Dance about the Observer (a big favorite in this office when it was published last year); in it Ivins recalls her days here as "a happy, golden time, full of sunshine and laughter ace of a and beer," days of traveling the state and ..0g.....,„:„:.....oigg;:::0$'-!):.,. „.. q..:;!4ttir ..,„:„....ordor of, thugspm..:q:-Tg$0.19g meeting the two liberals in each town and *olo,.:oljpy::. .00gk.ofotg:f40y:-gp'*o00i,!....1::*„.0:0'..i)01-.4f:t.,.4-ii:::::iip6.k4ti*:,to:::Ndii.. .a: stealing pencils from the governor's office. ..:., ...... ,'..:Tdia§i ...,..:,,,:,.„...... :lib6taliiidgiVhaV6:'fiiii... ,„.:..,::: ...,.....,...... ::...... ,:....,...... :...... :.., ....„,.-:y:'...athdiiingb .,.. ...:.,:..,....,..:g ...... ,:.„.. ..itid:,,...mess. :.of- of:...... beei.'gititaii7„... i ,...... :: .,.:,,.diigs-iitt ..„...,,..: ....„.., .g. oad'' .,.,,.,. - She mentions slight variations in the maga- folksi::and:plontAng:OurselVd.S.gotriewherd.ottdoOr§ih.:tlie'Grear-Stat 'go: Akid'6411- ketSiiii . zine under different editors, but you get the burned and bitten by mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, chiggers, tarantulas, brown recluse spiders, sense that it has struggled along more or and all four varieties of poisonous snakes found on the North American continent. Now less unchanged from 1954 until the present. you understand why people who consider this fun are so desperately needed on the na In the seventies, though, the content of tional level. Any situation that doesn't include all these ingredients can only be More Fun. the magazine had more of a political-in- — Molly Ivins, from "Texas Liberals Ought to Come in Tablet Form," sider flavor to it than it does now; there You Got To Dance With Them What Brung You were more articles about Texas politicians, and greater familiarity with state govern- ment was assumed of the reader; it was psychoanalyzed it, and worked it by frac- gem emanating from Republican circles) in taken for granted that jostlings for power tions. Ignoring, of course, the real story, order to deflate it. She punctures various within the Legislature were important. This which is not the new leadership here but buffoonish assertions by Rush Limbaugh, is not to say that the Observer covered only the new followership.... Boy, are these Newt Gingrich's decline-of-American-civ- state electoral politics, but that the kind of people followers. Lock step, in line, march ilization version of history, the Republican interest the presumed reader took in state in unison, chant in unison, don't think, claim that large numbers of parents were electoral politics was different then — as if don't learn, follow the leader.") In the tran- coaching their kids to fake disabilities in the Legislature were a sporting event, and sition from Texas reporter of the early order to get SSI benefits, Dole's claim to that reader was eager for the play-by-play. 1970s to national columnist, mid 1990s, superior character, Clinton's family values Ivins therefore wrote a number of long, Ivins went from being an informed source platform, Phil Gramm labelling himself gossipy, plain-speaking pieces (not entirely on state politics for the benefit of people "blue collar"... and so on. Sportscasting humorless, but not whoop-it-up haute- who cared about it, to an explainer of poli- has been replaced by spin analysis. Texan either) about, for example, the ques- tics, and at times of Texas, to an audience Of course it's natural for a columnist to tion of whether Price Daniel, Jr., would re- teetering on the line between interest and talk back to a politician, whereas a reporter place Gus Mutscher as Speaker of the disgust in its elected officials. would talk about what the politician is House in 1973: "Rayford Price pulled off a The ideas behind her recent columns are doing. But Ivins' rhetorical focus also brilliant stroke: he made a deal with the Re- straightforward: she singles out campaign seems to reflect how politics is conducted publicans and got ten votes right there. The finance as the scourge of present-day in the mid-nineties — through television Republicans got a good deal, too. But American politics, and insists that chang- campaigns, through anecdotes that spread Daniel wouldn't deal, see? Then the liber- ing the system is the most urgent task be- like catchy jingles and get turned into bad als got kinky. Hale would keep Heatly and fore us. Otherwise the book does not at- laws. Gingrich's slogans beg for someone they all hated Heatly and for heaven's sake tempt to deliver up any profound message like Ivins to beat them back; at the same how could the old Dirty Thirty vote to keep beyond those of the individual columns, in time dissent, these days, seems a lot like Heatly, even if only for the interim? Damn which Ivins criticizes fundamentalism and talking back to the TV. (Which takes us fool purists, muttered Daniel's people." welfare reform and right-wing weirdos, or back to Ivins' conviction that publicly-fi- praises people she's admired, or visits the nanced elections are the nation's only hese days, as a columnist for a na- Mall of America, or waxes rhapsodic about hope, since the more public participation in tional audience, Ivins naturally tends the looniness of right-wing weirdos. government boils down to relatively unin- Tinstead toward the brief and the For all the diversity of the book's sev- terested TV-watching every other Novem- broad. ("People have devoted long and enty-some columns, though, there's an ap- ber, the more candidates are forced to dis- solemn thumb-suckers to the new leader- proach common to many of them. Time play themselves on TV and raise obscene ship," she wrote of the Republican and time again, Ivins holds up some current amounts of money to do so.) Congress elected in 1994, "analyzed it, piece of political rhetoric (usually some Over the past thirty years populism has

20 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 gone right-wing: Republicans discovered derives in part from her humor, her Texas tions (thank goodness), sounds wrong at George Wallace, hence angry white males, shtick: here comes the good ol' girl to talk times, as when a friend who committed sui- and hence populist campaign talk. In his fine some sense to y' all. I suspect her popularity cide is described as "a fine and sensitive 1995 book The Populist Persuasion, histo- also owes something to the seamless, vivid writer who most recently distinguished him- rian Michael Kazin — who defines pop- quality of her writing (so many of her self by tying a plastic bag over his head...." ulism not as a strict affiliation like Catholic columns just slide on down) and to her ro- The other limitation Ivins is up against is or Democrat but as a type of language, "a mantic optimism. Though Ivins denounces that she's writing columns. She writes great flexible mode of persuasion" — follows the politicians as a matter of course, she just as columns, but there are times, particularly uses of populist language, beginning in the firmly declares her belief that most people when she's discussing Texas politics, that late nineteenth century. While the agrarian are nice, that this country is a great one to you wish you were getting more than a few Populist farmers of the nineteenth century live in — because of, not in spite of, its ab- anecdotes, given how much Ivins clearly used both moral argument and pro-working- surdity — and that liberals ought to enjoy knows about her subjects. class language in advancing their causes, in the sunshine, drink some beer, and keep on There are rumors afoot that her next this century, morals-based grassroots move- trying. This is the lesson you learn in Texas, book may satisfy that wish. Until it appears ments (the temperance movement, Christian she writes in one column ("Texas Liberals I suppose we Ivins fans will have to make Coalition) and labor movements have kept Ought to Come In Tablet Form"): rejoice do with columns, though, and beer in the their distance from one another. Meanwhile, now, for things can always get worse, but at Texas sunshine. following World War II, conservatives ap- least villains make for good stories. propriated populist language, opposing so- There's clear danger in carrying this sort ANDERSON & COMPANY cial change with appeals to the average fam- of thinking too far: American politics al- COFFEE ily. Particularly in the late 1960s, ready seems too often like a bad national re- TEA SPICES conservatives proclaimed themselves the run, and political commentary that simply TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE defenders of the so-called silent majority of says, "No, it's really the great American AUSTIN, TExAs 78731 workers and their families. movie," is faint praise. Ivins does more than 512-453-1533 Considering Ivins' work in historical that, but at times her "optimism" doesn't Send me your list. perspective, it's noteworthy stuff simply ring true; it seems more like a glibness built Name because, along with a few others like Jesse into her style, an automatic feature of the Jackson and Jim Hightower, she has articu- Ivins-column persona. The Ivins voice, Street lated her left populist opinions to a large, while setting her apart from some of her City Zip appreciative audience. Her appeal no doubt more plaintive counterparts at lefty publica-

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MARCH 13. 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21 BOOKS & THE CULTURE No Exit Is There a Cure for the Highway Blues? BY CHAR MILLER DIVIDED HIGHWAYS: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life. By Tom Lewis. Viking. 354 pages. $27.95.

THE CITY AFTER THE AUTOMOBILE: An Architect's Vision. By Moshe Safdie, with Wendy Kohn. Basic Books. 187 pages. $24.00.

homas Jefferson of Mon- rill ticello was suspicious of cities. In Notes on the State of Virginia (1784), his patriotic articulation of the rural virtues of the new republic, he scorned the urban energy that the industrial revolution was then unleashing in London and Paris. Americans, living in an edenic land of agricultural plenty, had no Alan Pogue need to replicate the Old World's experi- Those who now would oppose urban eco- ceeding generations have imitated, even ence. "For the general operations of manu- nomic development, he wrote a friend in surpassed, the European society and econ- facture, let our workshops remain in Eu- 1816, "must be for reducing us either to de- omy that so troubled him. But he might be rope," he asserted. "It is better to carry pendence on ... foreign nation[s], or to be comforted to know that his ambivalence provisions and materials to workmen there, clothed in skins, and live like wild beasts in about urbanization, and his worries con- than bring them to the provisions and mate- dens or caverns. I am not one of these." cerning the consequences that would flow rials, and with them their manners and prin- But neither was he persuaded that a citi- from an industrialized society, are integral ciples." It was the corrosive impact of urban fied future was a healthy prospect for the to late twentieth-century critiques of those sensibilities on democracy he feared most country he had helped to found. Were we emblems of the modern, post-industrial of all. "The mobs of great cities add just so completely to pattern ourselves after city: the automobile and the freeway. much to the support of pure government, as Britain or France, we would carry on busi- sores do to the strength of the human body." ness "with one half of the world at the ex- he title of Tom Lewis' book, Di- Jefferson would change his mind, but pense of eternal war with the other half." vided Highways, updates the Jeffer- only because of the threat that the War of As necessary as commercial centers were, Tsonian concerns. So too does the 1812 posed to the nation's survival; as his- the conflicts they engendered must be text's close focus on the physical impress torians Morton and Lucia White observed avoided. That is why he concluded that it of our historic westering impulse, epito- in The Intellectual Versus the City (1961), was still better for Americans to continue mized by "paths, roads, turnpikes, and this led him reluctantly to accept "the city to adapt "our policy and pursuits" to our canals in the eighteenth century; railroad as an indispensable element of American "agricultural capacities," for that "is more track in the nineteenth; and an ever-in- life." Without it, and the domestic manufac- likely to make us a numerous and happy creasing number of wide roads and stream- turing it generated, the sovereignty of the people, than the mimicry of an Amsterdam, lined highways in the twentieth." In these United States would have been fatally com- a Hamburgh, or a city of London." "signatures of civilization," he argues, promised, and that was something the for- It is good thing, I suppose, that Jefferson Americans have written down their "no- mer president would not countenance. did not live to see just how thoroughly suc- tions of progress and above all speed."

22 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 Spelled out too are an array of cultural con- plaintive request, "Frank, can't you do any- relationship to it. Central to what he calls tradictions. Souped-up cars allow us to thing?" the engineer replied: "I can but I "public private transit" is the creation of "conquer the vast spaces of our landscape," won't.... You'll just have to move." the "Utility car" (or "U-car"), a publicly and then we litter the scene with smog, Even as we might applaud Turner's eth- owned automobile that would be part of "a concrete, and neon; we can rocket over hill ical stance — why should he have spared pool of vehicles at our disposal by the hour, and dale, but cannot easily walk across his parents only to uproot other families? day, week, or month." Picked up at storage town due to the obstacles that an automo- — surely we recoil from the technocratic facilities located at transportation nodes, tive infrastructure puts in our way; while indifference that enabled him and his plan- paid for through credit cards, these electri- our highways seem to "diminish distance ning peers to lay down roads that ran cally powered cars "would enhance the and travel time" — especially at 75 miles roughshod over the social ecology and nat- freedom of movement we now enjoy" but per hour — that's only true if you can lo- ural environment. The architecture of the add "the convenience of a publicly run and cate an empty stretch of road. interstates could be as brutal in its physical maintained utility." Such an option would No moment more poignantly captured appearances as in its human consequences. also decrease the amount of time and space these, paradoxes than the burial service held Some of the engineers' hubris has been that contemporary car culture demands, by for President Dwight Eisenhower on the blunted over time. Confronted with federal lessening traffic congestion and reducing morning of April 2, 1969. He had pushed lawsuits brought by an empowered citi- the amount of space parking lots and hard for the development of the Interstate zenry, they have been forced to bury free- garages consume. If this system were ef- Highway System, a partial consequence of ways underground and erect sound barriers fectively linked to networks of mass tran- having witnessed the heightened mobility to muffle the ear-popping decibel levels that sit, we then could transfer from one form of that the autobahns had provided the Nazi afflict those who live along the most heav- transport to another without skipping a war machine. So it was only appropriate ily trafficked corridors. Congress, too, has beat. In that sense of ease lies the U-car's that on news of the death of the former begun to backpedal. Once immovably in most alluring quality, its designer argues: it Supreme Allied Commander, an army of support of disbursing Highway Trust funds has the potential to fulfill the "longtime nearly 100,000 mourners rolled in to Abi- solely for roadway construction — think of promise of cars: the carefree life." lene to pay their last respects, driving along all that pork barrel largesse — in 1991 it The trick is to depersonalize the automo- the routes he had financed with billions of passed the Intermodal Surface Transporta- bile, a tough sell in a society that so inter- federal tax dollars. Their grief-stricken tion Act (ISTEA) mandating the integration twines sexuality with horsepower and numbers would have swelled considerably, of other forms of transport into planning (through its popular music) reflexively however, if a horde of people hoping to at- processes. The development of bicycle sings the praises of the backseat orgasm — tend the services had not been caught in a paths, better pedestrian access, and light rail no "Utility car" inspired "Pink Cadillac." three-mile traffic jam along Interstate 70. systems will be paid with Highway Trust Yet Safdie suggests that an inspiration of Movement and congestion: the twin re- monies. With ISTEA's passage, Lewis con- another kind will seduce us away from our sults of the nation's forty-year experiment cludes, "the age of building the largest engi- auto fixation. Were we to "join our person- with constructing a trans-continental high- neered structure in the world was over." alized patterns of car travel with fixed, way system designed to conform to the planned corridors of public transportation," needs of the internal 'combustion engine he new age has not yet arrived, of we could weave "open, green, suburbs" and its many drivers. Social dislocation course, as any commuter will attest. with other, more "dense concentrations" of might be added to the mix. Here again, TNor will its birth be anything but population into a "single organism." In so Lewis finds the apposite anecdote, this one awkward. Indeed, renowned , architect doing, we would maintain "the civic meet- about a Texan, Francis Cutler Turner. He Moshe Safdie recognizes that "diverse en- ing places vital to an enlightened society had grown up along the railroad tracks in vironments and lifestyles require .opportu- and the desire to possess the vastness and Fort Worth in a house without plumbing, nities for choice," and that "no single freedom of the open road." That deft blend running water, or electricity; a devoted son, method of transportation is going to serve might even inoculate us from the "pestilen- he (and his siblings) would later buy, their as the golden breakthrough to an effortless tial" dangers that Jefferson believed were parents a new homestead, with all the mod- commute." In The City After the Automo- inherent in urban civilizations. ❑ ern amenities. As fate would have it, he be- bile, Safdie suggests that before reconsid- came a federal highway administrator re- ering the means by which we wish to move Contributing Writer Char Miller initially sponsible for platting the new interstates. people in and out of metropolitan centers, rebuffed the editors' request for a review of One of them, 1-35, was scheduled to run we must consider how to meld our goal of Divided Highways, due to his work on a smack through his parents' cherished increasing mobility with the "best system companion documentary aired by PBS last home. When he visited them in the early of transport to satisfy each type of mobility fall. But they pointed out that anyone who seventies to explain the situation, he saw we desire." This leads to a provocative sug- sang The Beatles' "Drive My Car" on NPR the stake that marked the highway's center gestion. He does not propose that we can as a promotional gimmick for the film is a line hammered in front of their living room the car, one of the favorite tropes of the bit unprincipled to begin with; his capitu- window. Met at the door by his mother's anti-auto club, but that we reimagine our lation proves their point.

MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 23 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Chinatown Behind Closed Doors Charting the Trade in Illegal Asian Labor BY CHARLES WILBANKS

FORBIDDEN WORKERS: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor. By Peter Kwong. The New Press. 240 pages. $24.00.

hen President Jimmy Carter met with Deng Xiaoping in 1974, Carter reminded the Chinese leader that U.S. law forbade granting "Most Favored Nation" status to any country that didn't base its economy on free market principles, and didn't allow its citizens to emigrate freely. Deng's response: "How many millions of Chinese does the United

States want?" A From the cover of Forbidden Workers Corky Lee Quite a few million, apparently, judging by the numbers of Chinese working ille- when the freighter Golden Venture ran $40,000 a person, many of whom come gally in the United States. While Deng's aground off a beach in New York. Ten of through Central America and Mexico into statement laid bare the many contradictions the 287 would-be immigrants drowned after Texas and various points north. Posing as a of U.S. immigration policy at the time, that jumping into the sea, and the rest were ar- Chinese-American businessman, he also policy has become no more rational today. rested, destined to spend years languishing had no trouble meeting Chinese government Lawmakers and human rights advocates in officials who are eager accomplices. Back in the United States loudly deplore working LAWMAKERS AND HUMAN RIGHTS New York, he talked to scared Fujianese conditions and prison labor in China, at the ADVOCATES IN THE UNITED STATES who work until they drop, sometimes sleep- same time that sweatshops employing Chi- LOUDLY DEPLORE WORKING CONDI- ing in the restaurants and garment factories nese workers in barbaric conditions flourish TIONS AND PRISON LABOR IN CHINA, where they work, living under constant in the U.S. Meanwhile, the U.S. govern- AT THE SAME TIME THAT SWEATSHOPS threats from the smugglers, to whom they ment forbids the entry of illegal workers, EMPLOYING CHINESE WORKERS IN owe possibly insurmountable sums. and spends huge sums on their interdiction, BARBARIC CONDITIONS FLOURISH Kwong, who has been a regular contrib- but does little to discourage demand for the IN THE U.S. utor to The Nation and the Village Voice, workers by American businesses. With esti- was an early critic of the "Asian Values" mates of more than 25,000 Chinese enter- in prison, having just spent months in the argument — that cooperation, discipline, ing the U.S. illegally every year, and more Golden Venture's disgusting cargo-hold. and loyalty to authority resulted in the huge than a million entering legally only to re- Kwong, chairman of the Asian American economic gains across so much of Asia. main after their visas have expired, it ap- Studies program at Hunter College in New That argument, viewed through the dust of pears the demand is growing. York, interviewed the Chinese in prison, the once vaunted Asian economic "mira- Peter Kwong's Forbidden Workers: Ille- and visited their families in villages around cle," now appears laughable, but variations gal Chinese Immigrants and American Fuzhou, currently the source of most illegal on the theme survive in the U.S. The Labor, is a dramatic, clearly written explo- Chinese immigrants. What he learned in his stereotype suggests that Chinese immi- ration of the huge smuggling network that travels is tragic and maddening. grants are tougher than other ethnic groups, brings Chinese workers to the United States In Fuzhou, Kwong easily found "snake- and don't mind unremitting toil in bad and other industrialized nations. Kwong be- heads" who smuggle despe; to Chinese citi- working conditions for less than the mini- gins with the chilly June morning in 1993, zens around the world for as much as mum wage. Such a generalization allows

24 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 the family's needs, I make twenty dollars a year. You make that much in one day. No matter how much it costs to get there, or he success of human smuggling operations depends on the cooperation of hun- how hard the work is, America is still bet-

dreds of individuals, including snaketails in Fuzhou, corrupt officials in China, ter than this." ❑ T fishermen-smugglers on China's coast, Taiwanese fishing and freight fleet owners, Malaysian shipping crews, safe house operators dotting the globe, and under- Charles Wilbanks is a writer who lives in world "facilitators" along the smuggling routes from Bangkok, Central America, New York City. Mexico, and Texas to New York. The smuggling network also involves passport and visa counterfeiters in Hong Kong, gangs who specialize in stealing passports in Asia, money launderers in New York who transfer smuggling funds back into China, and financial operators who handle debt pay- ments in China. In New York, the smuggling network relies on Chinese youth gangs as en- The stories the forcers who oversee the snake people, on lawyers who defend illegals and appeal for po- litical asylum on their behalf, and on members of the Fukien-American Association on other media East Broadway, who were observed by law enforcement officials placing threatening calls from their offices to Fuzhounese immigrants in New York, demanding smuggling fees. somehow left Parts of the operation are subcontracted out by the syndicate. The U.S.-Mexico bor- der crossings are usually handled by Hispanic subcontractors. Until her arrest in 1996, out are just Gloria Canales, a citizen of Costa Rica, headed one of the largest immigrant smuggling operations in Central America. Immigration officials have estimated that Canales and at the end of her confederates had moved yearly at least 10,000 migrants from India, Pakistan, and China from Central America through Mexico to major U.S. cities. — from Forbidden Workers, by Peter Kwong your mouse. DownHome businesses that profit from sweatshops to This is an important book, written after trivialize them as a mere cultural issue that much courageous reporting and thoughtful with The outsiders don't understand. research. No one who reads it will ever In Forbidden Workers, on the other walk through a Chinatown, in the U.S. or Texas Observer. hand, the Chinese workers Kwong inter- Canada, in quite the same way again. As views are no different than anyone else: for policy prescriptions, even Kwong does- Now you can read your favorite they work as they do only out of intimida- n't seem to have much confidence that Observer features on The Texas Ob- tion and desperation. New York's China- change is on the way. He advocates server DownHome Page: Investiga- stronger labor. unions in the United States; tive Reporting, Molly Ivins, Jim NEW YORK'S CHINATOWN APPEARS this is slow in coming. And he urges Hightower Political Intelligence, A GRIM PLACE, WHERE POWERFUL tougher worker-protection laws, coupled and all 1'•?,st. BUSINESSMEN AND CRIME SYNDI- with harsher sanctions and international Al In our site is a list of CATES USE THREATS OF KIDNAPPING, cooperation against the smugglers and progi ive organizations on the TORTURE, AND RAPE TO KEEP those who virtually enslave the workers web — i )iks who share our progres- UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS IN LINE. once they have landed here. Judging by sive pol tics. President Clinton's State of the Union ad- — the Editors town appears a grim place, where powerful dress, just the opposite is more likely: Clin- businessmen and crime syndicates use ton advocated more money for the Immi- threats of kidnapping, torture, and rape to gration and Naturalization Service to "get http://texasobservenorg keep undocumented workers in line. As for control of our borders." By then it's al- ethnic solidarity, it is Chinese people — ready too late; but the government appears from corrupt mainland officials (who sell uninterested in reducing demand for the visas to immigrants for many thousands of workers before they decide to emigrate. dollars) to unscrupulous employers and In the meantime, the bloody business of "community leaders" in the United States human smuggling is likely to grow. While — who exploit other Chinese. All the in China, Kwong says he was unable to while, they push arguments about ethnic convince a single person that Chinese citi- solidarity as a way of isolating Chinese zens working illegally in the United States workers from whatever help they might face a difficult, dangerous existence. Said find in the United States. one farmer: "After taxes and providing for

MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 25 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Memoirs of a Progressive Packrat The Observer's First Printer Lived a Life in Movement BY DAVID RICHARDS GLIMPSES OF A CENTURY: By a Mouse in the Halls of the Mighty. By Mark Adams. Packrat Press (Washington). 272 pages. $24.95.

ark Adams was first and foremost a printer. When his Austin print- ing business failed, as it did from time to time, he "slugged up as a linotype operator at the Austin American- 1MStatesman." This meant, in the language of the Typographical Union, that he took his union card, went to the newspaper compos- ing room, printed his name on a lead slug, and hung the slug on the "Available" board.

By this action, Mark announced to the fore- A Mark Adams and his father, Silas, Chaparral Press, ca. 1958 Russell Lee man of the shop that he was available to hold a "situation" (a.k.a., job) in the paper's print- but we may also face the loss of the colorful Mark was a journeyman printer by the age ing operation. Hiring of printers was done by language that characterized the unionized of fifteen. In the midst of the Depression, the foreman who was himself, by custom printing trade. I remember well my first rep- when the East Texas oil field was, at its and rule, a union member. Indeed, in those resentation of the Typographical Union in early peak, Mark was working with his fa- years, regular situation holders could hire Dallas in the fifties. It took weeks just to ad- ther on a weekly in Gladewater. According substitutes to cover their regular shift with- just to the peculiarities of the jargon. Some to Adams, "Governor Ross Sterling sent out management approval, so long as the sub years ago, Chief Judge Brown of the Fifth the National Guard to shut down the huge was slugged up. This practice, which existed Circuit Court of Appeals wrote a wonderful oil field until the Texas company could fin- at unionized newspapers across the country, opinion, attempting to describe a dispute be- ish its pipeline to the major company re- enabled journeymen printers such as Mark tween I.T.U. Local 173 and the Dallas fineries on the Gulf Coast. (Governor Ster- Adams to move across the country and from [Morning] News. Judge Brown's opinion ling had entered politics from his post as job to job almost at will, creating an icono- noted that the culmination of the contro- CEO of the Humble Oil Company...)." clastic crowd of roving freethinkers. versy came when the "chapel chairman pied The senior Adams was incensed, and de- Technology and the elimination of hot the forms in the hell box." The Judge nounced the Governor's invasion of East lead type in the printing process has deci- pointed out that the chapel chairman appar- Texas, commenting in his paper, "The only mated the journeyman printing trade. Irish ently had no ecclesiastical duties, but rather difference between Ross Sterling and his Matthews, a long-time Austin unionist and functioned as the union steward, and the hell militia and Al Capone and his mob is that Democrat, recalls that he was holding a sit- box was the disposal for used metal type. Sterling's gunmen wear uniforms." uation at the Statesman when Mark Adams We will probably never again see such dis- Mark's father rightly expected retribu- slugged up in the late fifties. At that time, putes — nor another Mark Adams. tion, and shortly there were unsuccessful according to Irish, there were some 220 All of this is simply to say that reading attempts to indict Mark and his father for regular union jobs for printers at the paper. Mark Adams' Glimpses of an American criminal libel, and visitations from a Texas Today, despite the dramatic growth of the Century brings home vividly what we have Ranger, who later told Mark they had been city and the newspaper, there are probably lost to technology. called by the Governor's office and in- less than fifty such unionized jobs. Mark's father was a printer and editor of structed to do whatever was necessary "to Not only have we lost those skilled jobs, small town weeklies in East Texas, and quiet us down." With this background, it is

26 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998

.4 . 0,1 no surprise that Mark fell in with a cluster gave him, in his words, an opportunity "to 1 of progressives on the University of texas operate a print shop which would print pro- campus in the thirties. paganda for liberal causes." In 1958, Adams NHS -., Mark's accounts of U.T. politics of the convinced the Texas AFL-CIO to buy a half- ' ..„...... era invoke names that are certainly familiar interest in the press, enabling Adams to pro- ..-. to Observer readers, and who were central vide campaign literature to liberal candidates to my own political maturation — Otto at cost. But in 1960, his dream came crashing illr • i-' . Mullinax of Dallas (with whom I practiced down when, without warning, AFL-CIO 1 ., , :.-. law for many years), Chris Dixie of Hous- President Jerry Holleman pulled out the Vt.-..4 -.4i.- ■ ., ton, Creekmore Fath of Austin, and Bernard union's money. The end of his shop sent e-,i t Rapoport of Waco. This young group of Adams back to the Austin American, as a progressives came under the spell of Dr. linotype operator. Shortly thereafter, Holle- Bob Montgomery of the economics faculty, man was appointed Assistant Secretary of Give the who apparently marked all of them for life. Labor, apparently on the recommendation of Certainly, they have remained at the fore- the new Vice-President, Lyndon Johnson. Texas Observer front of progressive politics in Texas for Adams figured that, since he had been on half a century or so. According to Mark, Dr. Johnson's "shit list for a long time," therein to your friends. Bob was wont to say, "Texas is the richest lay the explanation for the loss of Holle- colony of Wall Street" — an observation man's support. Who knows? In that era, Your first personal or gift which may be less true today, but surely an Texas liberals suffered from probably exces- subscription is $32. accurate reflection of the role big oil has al- sive paranoia, finding Johnson's hand in all Each additional ways played in this state's politics. of our misfortunes, sometime with good rea- Included in Mark's World War II remi- son. (On LBJ, Adams himself is nothing if subscription niscences is an incident seemingly right out not blunt: "The son of a bitch was a certifi- is $27. of Joseph Heller's Catch-22, and it brings able psychopath.") home the omnipresence of oil's influence. Adam's indomitable nature is best shown Mark was on the carrier U.S.S. Lexington: by his "retirement" years. At age sixty- CI I want to send a one-year [During] the hit-and-run attack we seven, he took off from Austin with a fel- gift subscription to: made on Hong Kong on our way out of the low printer, Ann Price, and a mobile print- South China Sea ... as we checked over the ing press. For the next few years she operation order, with its slapdash assign- slugged up at newspapers across the west, NAME ment of target priorities, I pointed out the while Adams did odd jobs and printing pro- ADDRESS paragraph stating that the oil tank farm at jects on his mobile press. In 1982, at the age

Kowloon was to be protected from attack of seventy-two, Mark and Ann married and CITY/STATE/ZIP because the tanks were the property of the settled in Washington state. There, Adams Texas Company. built and founded the Packrat Press, using

According to Mark, his commanding of- hot lead printing equipment that had been NAME ficer commented, "Aren't these tanks sup- destined for the scrap pile. For the next fif- plying oil to the Japanese?" Upon return teen years, they printed and published what ADDRESS from the mission, the officer reported that they chose, including Adams' own writ- he had gotten off target and feared his ings, those of Otto Mullinax, as well as the CITY/STATE/ZIP bombs might have landed "'smack-dab on letters of Franklin Jones of Marshall, one of those Texas Company tanks.' the most gifted of Observer contributors. "I nodded. 'You can't always tell where Mark Adams died in 1997, with this book MY NAME those bombs are going to hit.' still in progress. It was completed by his "So I wrote down in the combat report: wife Ann, and printed by Packrat Press. The MY ADDRESS `Dropped bombs at shipping in the harbor. book is disjointed in parts, and in that, too, it MY CITY/STATE/ZIP Missed.'" reflects the life of the author. This memoir is Mark Adams came back to Austin after 0 Enter my own subscription dedicated to his children and grandchildren, 0 Renew my own subscription the war and, for the next thirty years, was a and is a testament to his restless energy and 0 Check enclosed 0 Bill me later fixture in the progressive political scene as a iconoclastic soul. It gives the reader the full printer, writer, and political activist. He was flavor of the time and place. ❑ a participant in all of the Ralph Yarborough David Richards is a longtime Texas politi- campaigns, and in 1954, he helped launch cal activist and civil rights attorney who 307 W. 7th St. • Austin, TX 78701 (512) 477-0746 • (512) 474-1175 fax The Texas Observer, as its first printer. This currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. http://texasobserver.org

MARCH 13,1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 27 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Remembering the Progressive Democrats BY MARK ADAMS The Progressive Democrats first organized as the campus chapter of the young Democrats — affiliated with the Democratic Party — intending to fight in causes of the New Deal. But immediately they found themselves restrained by conservatives per- functorily installed as officials of a paper or- ganization by an equally conservative state Democratic Party administration. The grey- ing bald heads and paunches of these state Young Democrat officials who sought to dis- cipline them seem to have been particularly galling to the campus Young Democrats — not reflecting their own idea of youth. The campus group was flattered but not persuaded when Jack Garner, the Vice Pres- ident, wrote them a letter chastising them and demanding that they shut up and behave. The campus group withdrew from under the authority of the Young Democratic or- ganization and took the name of Progres- sive Democrats. About this time two things happened which served to crystallize their own image A Mark Adams, Packrat Press, Washington 1983 Courtesy of Packrat Press of themselves for all time to come. First, since they had crawled out from dom, and independence they identified resolution through the legislature to set up a under the umbrella of announced policies with their forefathers and the days of an similar committee "to investigate commu- and principles of the Democratic party — American frontier. Their most radical spe- nist activities at the University of Texas." which at least partially reflected Roo- cific proposals were (1) an increased tax on The resolution, of course, was aimed at sevelt's embryo New Deal — they decided sulphur, which was the most air-tight and driving Dr. Bob Montgomery off the Uni- they should set out a statement of principles profitable monopoly exploiting Texas re- versity faculty. The sulphur lobbyist and policies of their own. The result was the sources (Jefferson had urged an unequivo- thought Dr. Bob the root of all evil — Bob PD Constitution which, verbatim, con- cal prohibition of monopolies in the Bill of had written a book about the sulphur cludes these notes. Rights). And (2) a law regulating public monopoly and urged a steep state sever- I find this remarkable. It is a truism that utilities and establishing a commission to ance tax on sulphur, and besides he taught humanity habitually backs into the future enforce it. (They knew such regulation was the course on public utilities in the Eco- — eyes focused on the horror it backs away rooted in the English common law govern- nomics Department. So Bob's admiring from but with little thought of where it's ing millers — dating back approximately to students on campus — specifically the PDs going. But these youngsters — the PDs — the reign of Richard the Lion-Hearted.) — were directly in the line of fire. looked very carefully back over their A second crystallizing event occurred The rationale of that lobbyist's Dies- shoulders with firm intent to plan, to pick a about the same time. The PDs were given McCarthy gambit, of course, is also rooted better path. their baptism of fire. in the venerable past. I seem to remember It is to be noted that there is nothing rad- that James I — regarding Sir Walter ical whatever in their Constitution. Basi- THE BAPTISM OF FIRE Raleigh as a political threat — accused Sir cally its principles might more accurately The lobbyist for Texas Gulf Sulphur, not- Walter of conspiring with the Spanish be termed reactionary — it reflects a yearn- ing with approval the activities of Martin against England. That was an outlandishly ing for return to the local self-reliance, free- Dies and his Un-American Committee, got a improbable idea, but it was established to

28 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 13, 1998 the satisfaction of King James on the basis of no evidence as yet known to historians. And thus having found Sir Walter guilty of treason, King James had him drawn and quartered — that is, executed by the most cruel and inhuman method possible. gtft c s Happily the assault on Dr. Bob by the to pro the most generous lobbyist's legislative lynch mob was te them to the largest possible abortive. It was a fiasco. (I speak of it at length in the Afterword I wrote for Otto's Thus Spake Idion.) d services should be determined by his But before Bob got to the stand to y or mentally unable to do productive answer the committee's questions with om such work by the group. simple, direct answers that revealed the good is liberty — that is, the right of the individual to make committee members to all eyes as the venal e funttathentals of life, e.g., in his job, his home, his religion, his boobs they were, and an embarrassed legis- es and in goods and services which he will consume. lature withdrew the committee's authoriza- tion, the student PDs had been put on the 4. That private monopoly is against the public interest, and in the production or distri- stand, browbeaten by the committee mem- bution of any important good or service cannot be tolerated in a democracy. bers in accusatory speeches based on 5. That equality of opportunity in securing the essentials of life, health, education, nothing at all, and grilled at length about and economic advancement must be provided for all passages taken out of context from PD cor- respondence files (which the lobbyist had 6. That the allocation of functions between various governmental units should recognize quite literally hired a thief to steal before two basic propositions: (1) in a democracy, governmental powers should be as close to the the hearings were authorized). citizen as is practicable; (2) governmental functions should be performed by the agency — It was a baptism of fire for the PDs, and local, state, or national — which can best perform each function. they emerged from it as a cadre of blooded 7. That the people should perform through governmental agencies those functions that troops for armies of the democratic cause. can be performed in that way more satisfactorily than through private business units. A blooded trooper knows two facts an untried trooper cannot feel positive about. Reprinted with permission from Glimpses of An American Century by Mark Adams, And the knowledge is oddly strengthening. Packrat Press, 4366 North Hamilton Drive, Oak Harbor, Washington 98277. Phone: Fact 1: He knows he can be hit and hurt if (360) 675-6016; e-mail: [email protected]. he ever finds himself in battle. Fact 2: He knows for sure that from somewhere inside himself he can find the courage to face Fact 1, and such knowledge, once gained, is good for a lifetime. Looking back over the half-century that 4k," ki has elapsed since the PDs graduated and Ikt1(1%1 1)141°14 'W 6 left campus along their separate paths, I Labor Intensive Radio cannot think of a single one of the 1934 PDs who has not held true to the principles they drafted for themselves so long, so very Radio of the union, by the union long ago. ❑ and for the union. Hosted and produced by union members dedicated to bringing the Mark Adams was a longtime Texas politi- voice of labor to cal activist and one of the founders and the the Austin airwaves. first printer of the Observer. On the wall of his office was a quotation from Sabatini: 307 West 5th Street "He was born with a gift for laughter, and Tuesdays 6:30-7:00 p.m. a sense that the world is mad." His last KO.OP 91.7 FM Austin, Texas home was in Oak Harbor, Washington, P.O. Box 49340 (512) 477-1137 . where he died last year, two months before Austin, TX 78765 his eighty-seventh birthday.

MARCH 13, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 29

AFTERWORD Chronicle of a Death Foretold BY CARMEN GARCIA Lyon, France When I left the editorial offices at Euronews on the night of February 2 the windshield on the car was covered by a cap of ice so thick that we had to pour water on it to thaw it out. The cold and ice were not that unusual; it is winter and Lyon is not far from the Alps. But it was the end of a very hard day. In mid afternoon, all the office teletypes jumped to life with reports of an accident in the north of Italy, where the tail of a U. jet fighter had sliced through a cable supporting a cable car carrying twenty people. The car plummeted to the ground and all on board died. The jet climbed out of the valley and the pilot landed without complications at the base he flew out of in Bosnia uronews received the images of the not certain whether Karla Faye Tucker passed without a Texas update, which in- tragedy from RAI, the Italian TV would die that same night. News of the lat- evitably included the image of this white, network, and our editors raced est development in the story had arrived a fundamentalist Christian woman who was against the clock to prepare a bul- day earlier, on Monday, when Victor Ro- so very photogenic. And for several days it E driguez, speaking for the Texas Board of seemed as if all of Europe was looking to- letin for the 6 o'clock news, as all of Eu- rope's TV outlets reworked their evening Paroles and Pardons, announced that the ward Texas, and the newspaper headlines lineup to make a place for the continent's board had refused to commute Karla suggested the same. lead story. If the American fighter pilot had Faye's death sentence to life in prison. In Italy, which has no death penalty in flown at the altitude required by NATO, all In our newsroom, which simultaneously civilian cases, the opposition to Karla Faye of Europe's TV networks would transmits TV news in six languages, not Tucker's execution was vocal, organized, have led with a very different i a half-hour had and daily, making the case for a total ban on story. They would have been in- ' capital punishment.. "I am completely

forming viewers that it was still i # against the death i k . v * INTERN4 sort de Karla Faye Tucker e; repargner ieune femme condamnee mort, la (own tat, . oil persome n'a beileficie eve tee mesure depuis ee(octiiti ,r- vorteut tst ! uni a timi• dts d'iparom 11 Ow* forgo., la rovt f)as batIg Etats, Dah, fits dt raw o 5 to tkel Won pb3i*, <1>x itak ovo do livos,40ros 5pouvalt 1Y. salt guivik 11s Mk iolbtdepin in den USA c)! pouf stars rdk$Irkftt , , 4 oftott ext101, sals pasta oirtmWt demo,* pews • 4,4 1:0:. do ta suggestion, 01 444 53 fike0i4X1 k tx sasaasilieti de rev* to 01- 04 117 as de kw paseassaraaan, A''';'"k4,k44.5ft<4f; Ap) - Ars &rata tsieras- 300:•.3 t , $132zrOstazalt,aolliasta. 1 sies • • 4.3 Ware awe aisassatrssastaa'essais were ass asr • 4mr.k.„i *0!aOgisia „ f.0s .4 320.41,1)00.13333 30 61.43< it , ;11\7433:330344 M<"44 satt Karla For --- 001, XZ*1<,4)&,;,I. ilysitra t33*eteiristel ones- ate, ?mutate, der Klasaa4 v.514 titutiona• st.spielt0 des rats- tleao€41:,12tsits.4a4tik: aDaisges* slar VaWatass ve, 4rapal4fIsseileata kassi 12 step 1014 OVERSEAS NEWS ttst teat extt!- 40- Vttlx*ilLt. Wrdtr:In ass 4sct.6(13: , hart ssatlei*Vil.Csau- Texas board rejects OlisztilitiOaFriastolsettaa4S- (I: va, #4.4.1ta de verortel340 Prositsti 1)33. h<1 itnomiiski; 5.vscofiirreii . 144 f 41' Udkr %ill kik' at the ‘ A.. . -,. 0330* crest Oarb 1993 3113 eselOgatt sat 1 b flow 1 ttmtiyille beatft Qj, p..,Kr.- ,,k.., r I otvnum,.: 31 efff4InfOt I if Labaiietslern ; k`00fifilff,t 300 AN ,4130fit100 Shoff, q 53.1,p33s4,i,Wit,Isk.wk:,,,,, . pd.k. s4 Oils eon 33:31.5435(3 in 303 f0 1* i ' , eke? #3ev ott, 4333 ati las Gel/ 14,,o, i'•31(.v, OR .. 4,.0,0,,,maktd,,,k,,k,...,.,s303,404" i40 0,4, Iv* ,, who civil •! :,• de,4., .., Mersaels ge!oYwrss die :Sta* ro ,fx-.tail of m1,,,,,,,,,,,0 ,::,wit: /301001501fm lwes341 < r•ttat xt"' x' :43 a tat Chrimian i it' hofmo 3., 3 i ,; ,.,:aA'44,.4 , .,,,,` 31.? r se q/e0 --- ..... , ...... N 335 "I's:31,.... muslfer• I jiztrz;:t„,:::::$7t ^ • fte, 1‘>`N it` ''t ' tct. sokAsio ... „. Vottitkatt O' • assee.:sestsesesskso 4“3;:z•103:;':00) ;.* owisrmn 1-lys>v infpntiisrk . " r .sesesess*. 4 Ragotf tt4%44itev,,4vr . , oswl,,,..„:,. %to rtsvbge Mott, Moo. Clintot i. i ..„.,,,,..,„.„,.„,,,,...,, smokers fetoii.k,,,,...,, , .StA Ai ,,,,,,,, pow 4 tn ' s, ik,iwwito Pm> . ,,,...,-----tr--t'‘Ilr'fl':.°;pseasosa:k7k• mas a,

penalty ... and clemency should be granted in It had been years since the death penalty news event that hadn't yet occurred, as ev- this case and every other case," Italian Prime had disappeared from the Old Continent — eryone pronounced Karla Faye Tucker dead Minister Romano Prodi told reporters late with the exception of Russia and the Baltic — for the simple reason that no one could Monday while traveling in Latvia. "All pleas states, where capital punishment statutes conceive of an act of clemency from a Re- fall on deaf ears," Il Corriere della Sera re- remain on the books but have not been en- publican candidate when presidential elec- ported. "Texas rejects clemency and every- forced for many years. And when these tions are only two years away. thing is prepared for an execution," La countries want to become part of the Euro- I left the newsroom as our news teams Repubblica wrote. "For Governor Bush it is pean Council, they will be required to sign got their instructions: at fifteen minutes be- easier to confirm [the death sentence] be- a European Human Rights Accord. The ac- fore she is scheduled to die, proceed with cause it is easier for him to obey his strong cord doesn't prohibit state executions, but the report that Karla Faye Tucker has been sense of justice rather than his latent sense of the countries will face strong pressure to executed in Texas. humanity," an editorial writer in La Stampa sign a supplementary protocol that clearly Tomorrow the director of the U.N. High wrote. Pope John Paul had appealed to U.S. prohibits capital punishment. Perhaps the Commission on Refugees will offer her authorities, but Vatican spokesman Joaquin reporting on Karla Faye Tucker will in- condolences to the victims of the family, Navarro Valls said late on Monday that no crease that pressure. then add that she could not accept that "one answer had yet been received. Valls reiter- On Wednesday at 8 p.m., when the wire death justified another." French politicians ated the Pope's opposition to the death services announced that the U.S. Supreme from across the ideological spectrum will penalty. In Spain, El Pais devoted much of Court had rejected Tucker's appeal, all of lament the execution. And in Germany, the its front and inside pages to Karla Faye Europe's attention turned to Texas Gover- Social Democrats will decry the execution Tucker and in France, Le Monde and Libera- nor George Bush, the only person who could as "a violation of the most elemental tion did the same. The story received the do anything to slow Tucker's march toward human right: the right to live."

same treatment in Germany's newspapers. the death chamber. When the news arrived I was home by midnight. ❑ Every major network had sent news cor- that George W. Bush was Karla Faye Carmen Garcia is a journalist from respondents to the small East Texas college Tucker's last hope, our editors all agreed: to- Madrid, Spain and a former Observer and prison town whose name was becoming morrow's lead story would be Karla Faye edi- torial intern, now working for Euronews in a household word in Europe. France Deux; Tucker's death by lethal injection. After a Lyon, France. France Trois; the three channels that make week-long deathwatch in the newsroom, ed- up Italy's RAT; Spain's public network, itors began writing the copy for a

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''''''''4'1'44. — THE BACK PAGE War Ink "The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side but he has a re- markable capacity for not even hearing about them." —George Orwell ne of the many grim amusements the unseating of Saddam" (Fouad Ajami in syndicated op-eds leading the charge. of watching the U.S. national secu- The New Republic). In the same issue of Under a particularly cynical cartoon featur- •ty state prepare for war is follow- The New Republic (February 23), Eliot A. ing Clinton imprisoned by a peace sign Oning the role in those preparations Cohen advocated a sustained and over- ("What goes around comes around for the assigned to the U.S. press. The Official whelming military campaign, worrying old '60s war protestor"), the Houston Bogey-Man of the Hour is Saddam Hussein's only that Bill Clinton's "character" flaws Chronicle (February 20) featured Charles Iraq, but when the villain alters, the pattern might make that impossible. There's a ICrauthammer's outrage that Clinton didn't does not. So it goes with the current solemn thought: that adultery might render a presi- appear sufficiently warlike in his threats ritual: as it became clear that the Clinton ad- dent morally untrustworthy to engage in against Iraq. Sandy Grady (Austin Ameri- ministration had decided to move to defy the mass slaughter. can - Statesman, February 21) complained overwhelming international consensus The Texas papers have also done their that the administration had clumsily against a military solution, the U.S. press du- part to keep up the drumbeat, with their muffed its job of "selling" the war to the tifully began waging the propaganda war that American people. A few days later, the must of necessity precede the shooting. Dallas Morning News (February 24) fea- We have been treated to heartwarming tured Jim Hoagland muttering that the profiles of U.S. soldiers readying for tearful U.N.-brokered deal had tied Clinton's departures (although any danger they will hands, but he could still salvage all, by in- endure will largely originate from their own sisting on an "automatic," unilateral U.S. weapons of mass destruction). We have attack in the event of any further "trouble" seen glowering images of Hussein and his from Hussein, forbidding any interference brutal massacres of the Kurds (with no by any other nations. Pin-striped bravery is mention, of course, that most of these bru- an awesome spectacle. talities occurred with U.S. support and as- What is not reported is also crucial. Vir- sistance, in that prehistoric era a decade ago tually unmentioned, for example, have when Iraq was a U.S. ally). And we have been the catastrophic consequences of the read rigidly constricted versions of the U.N. economic sanctions, kept in place available U.S. options ("Should we just largely because of U.S. belligerence. Ac- bomb Baghdad, or should we bomb Bagh- cording to the U.N.'s own reports, since dad and invade?"). sanctions began, over 1.2 million people, And that's only the news reports. The (the majority children) have died as a result columnists and commentators have also of medical shortages; more than 4,500 chil- been admirably eager to prove themselves dren under the age of five are dying each as arm-chair bloodthirsty as the average month from hunger and disease; there has warlord. Led as usual by The New York been a six-fold increase in the mortality Times' Abe Rosenthal and William Safire, rate for children under five; and the major- and the frothers at The New Republic, the ity of the country's population has been on pundits have eagerly demanded "the elimi- a semi-starvation diet. nation of Saddam" (Rosenthal); "to replace The U.N. inspectors looking so dili- dictatorship with a form of democracy" gently for weapons of mass destruction ap- S.:• Kevin Kreneck ❑ (Safire); "the remaking of the Iraqi state and parently failed to notice their own.