ustxtxb_obs_1992_10_02_50_00023-00000_000.pdf

PEROTSCOPE UP PEROTSCOPE. After a two -anda-half-month sabbatical, during which he published a book, United We Stand: How We Can Take Back Our Country, H. Ross Perot has returned to the Presidential race sort of. Perot is expected to appear as an independent candidate on the ballots of all 50 states and he has been edging the door back open on his candidacy as an alternative to Bush and Clinton if his volunteers still want him. In a Dallas Morning News statewide survey of 1,027 registered Texas voters from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3, 42 percent said they would support Bill Clinton, 40 percent supported Bush and Perot got 2 percent. But when asked for whom they would vote if Perot were still actively seeking the Presidency, 30 percent opted for Perot, 30 percent for Bush and 29 percent for Clinton. A recent nationwide poll for the Washington Post and ABC News found that 16 percent of those most likely to vote said they planned to vote for Perot if his name appeared on the ballot. When last we saw the Dallas billionaire who would be President, shortly before he took his leave, Molly Ivins, in a July 9 column for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, confessed that she has had some fun playing with Perot his short stature, his Chihuahua-like voice and other physical characteristics that have nothing to do with his qualifications for the Presidency but she pointed out that he has some other failings besides his Bad Haircut. Among them: “Perot lies,” he’s “seriously into paranoid, right-wing conspiracies,” he “spies on people,” he’s “been a bully and a quitter” and “it’s a damned lousy idea to vote for anyone who’s paying for his . own campaign.” He also wants a line-item veto of appropriations and thinks it’s “fine” to chop up the Constitution to take away Congress’ power to levy taxes, she noted.. “Let’s see, that would give him war, peace, taxes, spending. Can anyone think of anything else he’d need to be our first dictator?” Tony Freemantle of the Houston explored Perot’s use of animal imagery Freemantle wrote: “In Perot’s world, there’s nothing worse than being a rabbit. They’re either cowardly, or they breed too freely, or they’re easily led.” The Washington Post reported that Perot once insulted then:Vice President Bush by telling him: “This world is full of lions and tigers and rabbits. And you’re a rabbit.” Responding to a question about his pro-choice position on abortion on CNN’s “Live with Larry King,” Perot said humans should be more discerning in conceiving children: “We’re not rabbits,” he said. On another King show, he said Americans too often don’t act like they own the county. “We act like white rabbits that get programmed by messages coming out of Washington.” In March, he told the National Press Club what it would take to make him run: “If ordinary people in 50 states went out on the streets on their own initiative, not programmed, not orchestrated like rabbits the way we try to do everything now …” Perot admires eagles and tigers. At EDS, his motto was: “Eagles don’t flock, you find them one by one,” while he characterized a hard-charging employee as a “tiger’s tiger.” He called Republican operatives “hungry bears” and dismissed as “animal crackers” reports that he authorized a series of private investigations of Bush. He charged that the Republican. Party lived in “fairyland,” and dismissed the controversy as “Mickey Mouse tossed salad.” Welcome back, Ross. We missed you. Continued from pg. 15 Japan each year. We spend $50 billion on imported oil,” Emerson said. Emerson said half of all the oil we consume comes from foreign lands. And that percentage is rising. If domestic demand for petroleum products is reduced, America’s balance of trade will improve. In addition, Emerson believes it will strengthen the sagging dollar in overseas markets because fewer dollars will be owed to foreign banks. When former Fed chairman Volcker recently endorsed the carbon tax, his words were remarkably similar to those used by Gore: “If you want to increase taxes, use the tax that will have the least impact on savings, tend to restrain consumption, make more room for investment and therefore encourage growth.” He continued, “Some kind of tax on carbon emissions…has an environmental impact which is favorable so you raise some revenues and get an environmental job done.” The last time America heard about reducing energy consumption was when Jimmy Carter was in the White House. When Ronald Reagan became president, the solar panels were taken off the White House roof, and energy issues were ignored. Lately, the Bush Administration’s only energy strategy has been to assure that the air conditioner in the emir’s palace in Kuwait City is working properly. Clearly, the carbon tax will not be easy to implement. There are many issues about the tax that must be resolved. But to say the carbon tax is the idea of an “extremist” ignores the reality of the modern world. Continued from pg. 24 for the future,” the Chronicle quoted Al Ballinger, data manager with the Center for Public Policy at the University of Houston. “Hell, with the occupations you have there, we should just turn them out in the eighth grade.” WATER RIGHTS AND WRONGS. West Texas farmers may have relaxed the grip on their guns after state District Judge Peter Lowry of Austin restored the traditional rights of landowners to pump as much water as they can from the Edwards Aquifer, but the war of words continues. The Texas Water Commission had declared the Edwards an underground river, making it subject to regulation, rather than an aquifer, which is not free-flowing. Farmers protested that the state had no right to limit pumping of water without compensation and one threatened to shoot anyone who tried to put a meter on his well. Ag Commissioner Rick Perry welcomed the court decision and charged that TWC Chair John Hall had engaged in a conspiracy with federal authorities, who threatened to step in with their own regulations to protect species endangered by the lower water levels. Atty. Gen. Dan Morales also is fighting attempts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take over management of the aquifer, which is the source of water for 1.5 million people in South Central Texas. David Anthony Richelieu of the San Antonio Express-News noted that the traditional right of unlimited pumping stems from a 1904 Texas Supreme Court finding that the movement of underground water was too “mysterious and occult” to understand. “By oozing deeper into this murky mess with wild conspiracy charges, the UFOs can’t be far behind,” Richelieu wrote. Meanwhile, the Sierra Club lawsuit seeking federal intervention is set for trial before U.S. District Judge Lucius Bunton of Midland on Oct. 26, which may turn up the pressure for the Legislature to act. CHECK CLEARS. U.S. Rep. Craig Washington, D-Houston, was among nine Texans cleared of wrongdoing in the House check-bouncing scandal, but Dan Carney of the Houston Post reports Washington neither wants nor needs vindication from the Bush Administration. “I don’t need him to clear me … He couldn’t find the criminal law with both hands in a wet paper bag,” Washington said of special counsel Malcolm Wilkey, a former federal judge. OCTOBER SURPRISE? Another Democratic congressman under investigation is Albert Bustamante of San Antonio who complains that the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department have been combing through his affairs for more than three years. Federal agents appear to be focusing on his wife’s work as a real estate adviser for San Antonio businessman Morris Jaffey, as well as her role as a lawyer. Bustamante, who is seeking a fifth term in Congress, is worried about “an October surprise,” a grand jury indictment timed to help his Republican opponent, Henry Bonilla, according to Bruce Davidson of the San Antonio Express-News. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 23