ustxtxb_obs_1991_10_04_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

A JOURNAL OF FREE 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 human-kind 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. SINCE 1954 Publisher: Ronnie Dugger Editor: David Armstrong Managing Editor: Brett Campbell Associate Editor: Scott Henson Copy Editors: Roxanne Bogucka, Amy Root Mexico City Correspondent: Barbara Belejack Capitol Correspondent: Lisbeth Lipari Editorial Intern: Tracy Shuford Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, Warren Burnett, Jo Clifton, Terry FitzPatrick, Gregg Franzwa, James Harrington, Bill Helmer, Ellen Hosmer, Steven Kellman, Michael King, Mary Lenz, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Greg Moses, Debbie Nathan, Gary Pomerantz, Lawrence Walsh, Jennifer Wong. Editorial Advisory Board: Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, Kerrville; Chandler Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; 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, Austin; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Oxford, Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Austin; James Presley, Texarkana; Susan Reid, Austin; Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Hinterlang, Alan Pogue. Contributing Artists: Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods, Matt Wuerker. Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom Special Projects Director: Bill Simmons Development Consultant: Frances Barton SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year S27. two years $48. three years $69. Full-time students 515 per year. Back issues 53 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor. MI 48106. Any current subscriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. biweekly except for a three-week interval between issues in January and July \(25 Texas. October 4., 1991. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, 307 West 7th Street, Austin. Texas 78701. A Member of the Association of AliAN Alternative Newsweeklies Dateline: Mars Ronnie Dugger, whose name is on your masthead as publisher, is a journalist of breathtaking powers. In his “Observations” column in the Texas Observer of July 12, Mr. Dugger reported on the Texas tax debate. But he did his reporting form Wellfleet, Mass. The resulting column, though a bit vague and boomy, is a technological breakthrough for which costcutting corporate publishers like Gannett and Capital Cities/ABC have been searching: Outof-the-body reporting! I can’t wait until the accountants at, say, the Houston Chronicle latch onto this wonderful discovery. No more travel expenses. Furthermore, a journalist able to do astral projection will be able to file his stories weeks and months and eons ahead of the competition. I await Mr. Dugger’s dispatches datelined Mars, 2511 A.D. I’m going to read them aloud in the voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose. No. That won’t suffice. It’s a sad thing to see a man of Mr. Dugger’s talents and skill lose his legs. When Mr. Dugger actually goes out to find out what’s going on in the world, he is very fine indeed. I recall with appreciation, respect and roused-citizen outrage Mr. Dugger’s reporting, in the fall of 1988, on the theory and practice of computerized election fraud. \(But the version that ran in the Texas Observer wasn’t as tightly edited as the version that the New Yorker ing Votes” was a piece of work which did, in fact, do something towards advancing the health of the American Republic. Surely Mr. Dugger still can see that his outof-the-body observations from Wellfleet, Mass. \(a fine place; I recall the bracing breezes are a waste of actual space in a Texas Observer that tries honestly and honorably to report on Texas as-is, where-is. If Mr. Dugger’s life now is in Wellfleet, well, then, I say, bless him, and long may he wave. But when I see in the last two issues of the Texas Observer solicitations for applications for the post of associate editor of the Texas Observer datelined Wellfleet, Mass., requiring these applications to be sent to Mr. Dugger in Wellfleet, Mass., I can’t help but notice that this arrangement is not just inconvenient; it’s downright creepy. I suggest, with a righteous bluntness I think Mr. Dugger will find akin to his own, that it’s way past time for Mr. Dugger to let go of the Texas Observer. My guess is that the person most liberated by Mr. Dugger’s letting go of the Texas Observer will, of course, be Mr. Dugger himself. Samuel Hudson Forth Worth Quasha Responds Today I received a copy of an article entitled “Oil in the Family George W. Bush & His Slippery Friends” by David Armstrong, published in your paper on July 12, 1991. Recently, sometime after this article was published, Mr. David Armstrong phoned me several times. Several days ago, I received a fax from him to which I replied I had made it clear to Mr. Armstrong that I have had no connection with any Nugan Hand enterprise. What is especially outrageous about Mr. Armstrong’s article is that he displays a diagram showing a straight line connecting me with Nugan Hand. You could substitute “David Armstrong” for “W. Quasha” on that diagram and it would be as true as the published one. In my 55-year-career as a lawyer, I have represented thousands of clients, some big, some small. My reputation is a most precious possession. I am in many directories such as Who’s Who in the World and MartindaleHubbell Law Directory to name two. For your article to allege that I had a connection with Nugan Hand besmirches my good name. Mr. Armstrong did not advise me that he had already written an article wherein he had concluded that I was connected with Nugan Hand. Had he done so, I would not have wasted my time talking to him nor would I have answered his recent fax. I submit that your paper and Mr. Armstrong owe me an apology and I would be pleased if you were to admit that you have no proof whatsoever that I have had any connection with Nugan Hand or with any of its principals. Would you at least be fair enough to publish this letter as a first step toward rectification of your unfair article? William H. Quasha Manila, the Philippines Editor’s note: We are pleased to print Mr. Quasha’ s letter. We had no intention of besmirching his name and regret his conclusion that our article did so. The Observer has never accused Mr. Quasha of being involved in any Nugan Hand “enterprise.” His connections to the company are clearly laid out in the article referenced in his letter and in a subsequent story, “Global Entan-glements,”TO, 9/20/91. Furthermore, the diagram Mr. Quasha refers to clearly states that “Connections between entities in chart indicate business or personal relationships, and do not imply knowledge of another entity’s activities.” DIALOGUE 2 OCTOBER 4, 1991