JUNE 26, 2009 I $3.00 I OPENING THE EYES OF TEXAS SINCE 1954 LEFT BEHIND SPECIAL ISSUE: THE 81ST LEGISLATURE ' S UNFINISHED BUSINESS •• III 0 48939 TheTexas Observer DIALOGUE JUNE 26, 2009 REFORM TCEQ e-mail every Monday from an Austin FEATURES Thanks to Forrest Wilder for his Realtor; it allows me to ponder the article on Waste Control Specialists' possibilities. Thanks for a good article. THE PEOPLE'S FRIENDS & FOES 6 waste dump near Andrews ("Water, John Irsfeld Legislators who worked for—and against— Water Everywhere," June 12). Everyone Posted at www.texasobserver.org the people's interests. expects the radioactive waste dump to THE BADDEST BILLS 9 go forward even with the TCEQ evi- I only met Bud Shrake on one occa- This year's worst of the worst. dence regarding groundwater pollution. sion. It was a fine experience. This was Let's all remember that the TCEQ is up a fine article about a fine writer and a UN - COVERED 10 What happened to Capitol reporting? for sunshine review next session. Let's fine time. by Bill Minutaglio gather all the evidence and be prepared. Bob Moncrief The willful indifference to human safe- Posted at www.texasobserver.org OUT OF THE BOX 12 ty and ecological health is typical of Texas needs a full-time Legislature. LIVE AND EARN by Sen. Dan Patrick TCEQ. The arrogance is overwhelm- ing. Let's reform the agency. It will not Big Blue is a corporate entity, doing SNUFFED 14 change on its own. what corporate entities do: organizing How Big Tobacco killed the smoking ban. Fran Sage people who seek to maximize profits By Melissa del Bosque Posted at www.texasobserver.org ("Offshoring Big Blue," May 29). As RECONSTRUCTION 16 such, the company is neither stupid nor Can legislative reform fix the DPS? BUSINESS, AS USUAL traitorous, both of which are decidedly by Victoria Rossi Texas is growing commercially human attributes. If IBM violated a REPUPLICAN FROM LA MANCHA 17 because it is "friendly to business" contract with New York, the state might The Don Quixote of the Texas Senate. ("Dying to Build:' June 12). Businesses sue—or at least learn from its experi- by Reeve Hamilton make political contributions (guess to ence. Thanks to Jim Hightower's report- STATE SCHOOLED 19 which party?). "Guest workers" make ing, others might learn, too. Ian Reid A fix for troubled institutions for the few complaints and are replaceable. You mentally disabled? don't have to like it; that's how it is. Posted at www.texasobserver.org by Dave Mann Bob Walton Posted at www.texasobserver.org LEAVE THE TRINITY BE FIVE DAYS OF CHUB 21 Since this article, more bad news for Your Legislature at work. Shortest book in the world: Texas the Trinity toll road ("If They Build It," by Reeve Hamilton Workers' Rights. May 29). The city of Dallas will have NO GREEN SWEEP 24 Sam Davis to spend $29 million to test the levees. How high hopes for environmental Posted at www.texasoberver.org This will delay the toll road at least progress were dashed. 20 more months. The current cost of by Susan Peterson and Forrest Wilder WELL READ the Trinity toll road is $20o million a STATUS WOE 26 David Theis has "done it well;' both mile. For the same $1.8 billion, DART Two big agency reforms are tabled. for Don Barthelme and for Tracy is building 20 miles of light rail that by Melissa del Bosque and Dave Mann Daugherty ("The Donald," May 29). parallels the road project. The Trinity This is a wonderful book review. I toll road should die just like any other DEPARTMENTS want to run out and buy the book government project that's over-budget DIALOGUE 2 immediately. and impractical. The business com- Sally Lehr munity will pay the price, because EDITORIAL 3 Posted at www.texasobserver.org now they will have to get flood insur- BOOKS & THE CULTURE ance for all the buildings adjacent to HOMESICK BLUES the levees along the river. The Army BACK OF THE BOOK 28 I've been gone from Austin for 40 Corps of Engineers has determined Confessions of a jerky boy. years, and I miss it every day ("Better that the levees cannot protect against by Brad Tyer Back When," May 29). I left it once a loo-year flood. My advice: Leave DATELINE: ARLINGTON 30 before to go into the Army, and when the river alone and remember that it Dodging the ditches at GM. I came back it was even better. When I floods whenever it rains a great deal by Michael Hoinski finally had to go away for what looks like in a short period of time. forever, I got lost heading out of town. Stan Aten Cover illustration by Ben Sargent How psychological is that? Now I get an Posted at www.texasobserver.org 2 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JUNE 26, 2009 EDVIORAL The Lost Lege of 2009 f Texans loathe and fear the G-word—govern- ment—half as much as everybody always assumes, there should have been hoedowns and fiestas spon- taneously erupting in every Lone Star city, hamlet and colonia when the 81st session of the Legislature sputtered to its constitutionally mandated halt on JuneII i. When the dust had cleared from the biennial 140- day slugfest in Austin, their senators and representatives sure as heck hadn't given 'em much. For those of us who cling to the utopian pipe dream of good government, the 2009 session was less a cause for celebration than a nasty kick in the privates. Nothing unusual about that, of course. But there was reason for cautious optimism at the get-go--actually, before the get- go. The Republicans' once formidable edge in House seats had been cut to just two after last November's elections. With Wendy Davis, a rising Democratic star from Fort Worth, gaining a seat in the Senate, Republicans were two votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to ramrod bills through that chamber. And in December, a coali- tion of Democrats and non-loony Republicans had come together to replace the tinpot dictator of the previous three sessions, House Speaker Tom Craddick, with a rich, genial and relatively moderate Republican obscurity from San Antonio named Joe Straus. Craddick had reigned over the Capitol since 2003, when the Republicans' government-shrinking reactionaries and corporate puppet-masters handed him the gavel. Under Craddick's thumb—with Gov. Rick Perry leading his "wealth first" cheers from the sidelines, and Big Oil and the home builders' lobby calling the shots—the Legislature had deregulated and privatized just about every square inch of The Texas House on Day i. photo by Chris Carson THE TEXAS OBSERVER I VOLUME 101, NO. 13 I A Journal of Free Voices Since 1954 FOUNDING EDITOR Ronnie Dugger CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jana Birchum, Alan Pogue, The Texas Observer (ISSN 0040-4519/USPS 541300), entire con- CEO/PUBLISHER Carlton Carl Steve Satterwhite tents copyrighted © 2009, is published biweekly except during EDITOR Bob Moser CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Maggy Brophy, Michael Krone, Dusan January and July when there is a 4-week break between issues MANAGING EDITOR Brad Tyer Kwiatkowski, Alex Eben Meyer (24 issues per year) by the Texas Democracy Foundation, a 501(c)3 ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave Mann EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD David Anderson, Chandler Davidson, nonprofit foundation, 307 W. 7th St., Austin TX, 78701. Telephone INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Melissa del Bosque Dave Denison, Sissy Farenthold, Lawrence Goodwyn, Jim (512)477-0746, fax (512)474-1175, toll free (800)939-6620. Email STAFF WRITER Forrest Wilder Hightower, Kaye Northcott, Susan Reid, Rusty Todd [email protected] , www.texasobserver.org. Periodicals ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Julia Austin TEXAS DEMOCRACY FOUNDATION BOARD Lisa Blue, Melissa Postage paid in Austin, TX, and at additional mailing offices. CIRCULATION/OFFICE MANAGER Candace Carpenter Jones, Susan Longley, Jim Marston, Mary Nell Mathis, Gilberto ART DIRECTOR Daniel Lievens Ocanas, Jesse Oliver, Bernard Rapoport, Geoffrey Rips, Geronimo POSTMASTER Send address changes to: The Texas Observer, 307 WEBMASTER Shane Pearson Rodriguez, Sharron Rush, Kelly White, Ronnie Dugger (Emeritus) W. 7th St., Austin TX 78701. Subscriptions:1 yr $32, 2 yr $59, 3 yr POETRY EDITOR Naomi Shihab Nye IN MEMORIAM Molly Ivins,1944-2007, Bob Eckhardt,1913-2001, Cliff $84. Students $20. Foreign, add $13 to domestic price. Back issues COPY EDITOR Brian Baresch Olofson,1931-1995, Frankie Carter Randolph,1894-1972 $5. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm ADMINISTRATIVE INTERN Mary Hannah Duhon available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N Zeeb Rd, Ann EDITORIAL INTERNS Josh Haney, Victoria Rossi Arbor MI 48106.. NATION MAGAZINE LEGISLATIVE INTERN Reeve Hamilton INDEXES The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The LEGISLATIVE INTERN Susan Peterson Supplementary Index to Periodicals: Texas Index; and, for the years 1954 through 1981, The Texas Observer Index. c';;;,,A,;-, CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Nate Blakeslee, Robert Bryce, Emily DePrang, Michael Erard, James K. Galbraith, Patricia Kilday Hart, BOOKS & THE CULTURE is funded in part by the City Steven G. Kellman, Robert Leleux, James McWilliams, Char Miller, of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a Ruth Pennebaker, Kevin Sieff, Andrew Wheat grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. JUNE 26, 2009 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3 Texas. Practically every statewide measure of social well-being voter ID beast was born. On Day One in January, as Straus and economic fairness had devolved from merely embarrass- was warming hearts in the House with a call for bipartisan ing to downright atrocious. Teacher pay plummeted; college consensus—declaring with shocking good sense that the tuition soared; electricity and home-insurance rates spiked to "speaker's role ..