ustxtxb_obs_1987_05_01_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

7 ‘ s FOE . HE PEOPz __ 4 0,- _z_ .111Lad _, _ ____ts , LI PR1E1 atm, 1.t damw t 0.110, –:. ___ ‘—–!—..::-4. . 4-5, CISIV ‘ , I 1, _ig WI ….. II III IIIII/III , I I 111 in u” , ……._ ….. 7.1k 4 ———–,, 0/ -.——TETXDB SERvER ‘ The Texas Observer Publishing Co.. 1987 Vol. 79, No. 9 ,”….. May 1, 1987 Copyright 1987 by Texas Observer Publishing ‘Company. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without permission. PUBLISHER Ronnie Dugger EDITOR Dave Denison ASSOCIATE EDITOR Louis Dubose EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Kathleen Fitzgerald LAYOUT AND DESIGN: Valerie Fowler CALENDAR: Kathleen Fitzgerald EDITORIAL INTERN: Joan Fereday WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Richard Ryan EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, Kerrville; Chandler Davidson, Houston; Bob Eckhardt. Washington. D.C.’: Sissy Farenthold, Houston; Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cambridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn. Durham. N.C.; George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Dallas; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Oxford. Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Austin; James Schwartz, Galveston; Fred Schmidt. Fredericksburg..Robert Sher-rill, Tallahassee, Fla. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, Warren Burnett, Jo Clifton, Craig Clifford, John Henry Faulk, Terry FitzPatrick, Bill Helmer, James Harrington, Jack Hopper, Amy Johnson, Michael King, Dana Loy, Rick Piltz, Gary Pomerantz, Susan Raleigh, John Schwartz, Michael Ventura. Lawrence Walsh. CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Vic Hinterlang, Bill Leissner, Alan Pogue. CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: Mark Antonuccio, Eric Avery, Toni Ballenger, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson. Kevin Kreneck, Carlos Lowry, Miles Mathis, Joe McDermott, Ben Sargent, Dan Thibodeau. A free journal of voices We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agree with them because this is a journal of free voices. Managing Publisher Cliff Olofson Subscription Manager Stefan Wanstrom Office Manager Joe Espinosa Jr. Publishing Consultant Frances Barton Development Consultant Hanno T. Beck The Texas Observer paid at Austin, Texas. Subscription rates, including 5 1/8% sales tax: one year S23, two years $42, three years $59. One year rate for full-time students, $15. Back issues $2 prepaid. Airmail. foreign. group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Copyright 1987 by Texas Observer Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without permission. POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to: 600 %Vest 28th Street, #105. Austin. Texas 78705. EDITORIAL A Walk On The Wild Side SOCIAL DARWINISM came home to roost in the legislature last month and lorded over the body of lawmakers like a turkey buzzard on a hot summer day. Minds began to bend under the weight of the knowledge that only the strong will survive the battle that is to come. This is the reason state leaders found it difficult to address the government’s problems in terms not related to the animal kingdom. Natural selection is recognized, at least subconsciously, as the law controlling the process now. The governor surveyed the legislative landscape and saw . . . prairie chickens. “They have a genetic compulsion during the breeding season,” he said scientifically, “to thump the ground. It’s a historical, genetic dance that they do.” The governor was referring to the species of Democrat that has been making ominous noises about the state’s budget deficit. “My antenna tells me the thumping period is about over,” he added. Democrats in the Senate responded by comparing the governor to an ostrich with its head in the sand. Senator Ray Farabee introduced a motion making the prairie chicken the Official State Grouse, and Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby gaveled it through, saying, “the question is on en-grousement. All those in favor signify by thumping. All opposed signify by thumping twice.” The Senators thumped their approval. Meanwhile, in the House, a group calling themselves the pit bulls began commanding attention. The bulls are eight members of the Appropriations Committee who, because of hearing room. They are a serious lot junior technocrats, mostly, both Republicans and Democrats, who sink their teeth into the details of the budget like they were munching so many dog biscuits. Where some leading Democrats, according to current lore, are content to thump their tails in a noisy frenzy, the pit bulls are tenacious enough to get a hold on the budget problems. They emerged with a plan to fund a budget approximately $2.4 billion above the governor’s “bottom line” of $36.9 billion over two years, drawing most of the revenue from a proposed three-fourths of a cent increase in the sales tax that would be dedicated to building prisons and that would have to be approved by the voters. THE HOUSE AND Senate have not accomplished much, even on matters not related to the budget stalemate. But an extraordinary debate broke out in the House over a bill to set up psychiatric programs for prisoners convicted of sex crimes. Rep. Foster Whaley, the inimitable Pampa Democrat, took offense at the program and argued for an amendment that would require repeat offenders to be chemically castrated. Whaley, who said he “worked like a wounded steer” the night before to get his amendment ready, didn’t hesitate to draw on his knowledge of the treatment of livestock in discussing the problem of rapists and child molesters. “Quite frankly,” he told the House, “I’d like to put mechanical castration in there with a darn good stock 2 MAY 1. 1987