ustxtxb_obs_1996_09_27_50_00032-00000_000.pdf

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE TEXAS GALS. “Cross a Breck Girl with the Terminator” and you get Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, according to Houston-based writer Mimi Swartz in the September issue of George. The magazine put Hutchison on its list of “the twenty most fascinating women in politics,” calling her “one of the most determined public servants around.” Also on the list is Bowie County Sheriff Mary Choate, who rented out space in her barracks-style jail to the Colorado Department of Corrections until the 500 Colorado inmates rioted last year. \(Recently Denver’s Westword reported that the prisoners rioted because of poor conditions and harassment from jail officials. In George, Choate maintains they rose up in response to the Denver Broncos’ loss to the Seattle It’s that sweet-but-tough thang that makes a Texas woman fascinating in the eyes of a Capitol Hill glamour mag: the blurb on Choate mentions the National Rifle Association cap and wicker duck in her office, while Hutchison is noted for her courtly demeanor and her infamous temper. The George article also remarks on Hutchison’s ambitions which, according to a statement the Senator made on C-SPAN ,last spring, may include the presidency. As Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle recently told the Austin-American Statesman: “The attack of the 50-foot cheerleader isn’t over yet.” B-1 STAYS HOME IN TEXAS. When President Clinton wanted to punish Saddam Hussein for his foray against Kurds in northern Iraq, he didn’t use the Air Force’s vaunted B-1 bomber. Instead, the military used cruise missiles, either launched by ship or dropped from vintage B-52 bombers. Over the next seven years, the Air Force will spend $2.9 billion to retrofit the supersonic B-1 with new weapons and electronics. It argues that the B-1, which has never flown in combat, will form the backbone of the Air Force bomber fleet over the next few decades. But it is the B-52, in service since 1952, that continues to be the workhorse of the Air Force, not the B-1. The B-52 flew 1,741 sorties during the Gulf War. The B-1, which was unequipped for conventional warfare, stayed home. Since 1991, the B-1 has been retrofitted to carry conventional weapons, but it can only carry unguided, “dumb” bombs. The B-52, by comparison, can carry nearly two dozen different types of weapons, including the air-launched cruise missile. So why isn’t the B-1 being used in Iraq? A spokesman in Air Force Public Affairs at the Pentagon said, “I don’t know,” and referred questions to officials at U.S. Central Command headquarters at McDill Air Force Base near Tampa, Florida. Captain Mark Neuhart, a spokesman at McDill, said, “That’s an Air Force question that I can’t really address.” Meanwhile, nearly half of America’s fleet of ninety-five Bls, which cost $280 million apiece to build, are stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene. The base provides some $300 million per year in economic benefits to the city, and the Texas delegation, led by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, has been aggressively fighting to keep as many Bls stationed in Texas as possible. At a time when many Republicans would like to eliminate the NEA, it’s nice to see Kay Bailey standing firm for installation art. If only all weapons were so stationary. ALLIANCE CONVENES. Activists and organizers determined to “take back our lives and our democracy from corporate domination” will meet in the Texas Hill Country from November 21-24. Jim Hightower, Molly Ivins, Lawrence Goodwyn, Ronnie Dugger, David Korten, Jane Anne Morris, and Howard Zinn are included on a program.at the founding national convention of The Alliance, a national grassroots organization of independent local alliances. The Alliance came together in response to Ronnie Dugger’s “Call to Citizens,” which appeared in the Nation, the Observer and other publications one year ago. The Con vention will be held at Mo Ranch in Hunt INDONESIAN ACTIVIST. The East Timor Action Network is hosting a U.S. tour by Carmel Budiardjo, founder of TAPOL, the U.K.-based Indonesian human rights organization. She will speak on conditions in West Papua, East Timor and Indonesia, and promote her memoir of three years imprisonment by the Suharto regime: Surviving Indonesia’s Gulag: a Western Woman Tells Her Story. Her talk in Austin, on October 5, will include a screening of the documentary Death of a Nation: the Timor Conspiracy. [email protected] , http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/boyer/fp. ON THE DOLE. Houston-based oil and gas giant Enron picks up $12 million a year from a natural gas drilling tax credit Bob Dole pushed through the Senate four years ago, according to The New York Times. So it’s no surprise that Enron chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay, a leader of George Bush’s Houston friends-and-funders pack, is backing Bob Dole. Lay’s company political action committee and his employees have contributed $508,822 to Republican candidates and the Republican Party during the current election cycle. Democrats got less than $70,000, according to the Times. Enron’s patron Bob Dole received $72,250 from Enron employees and the company PAC. ANDERSON COMPANY COFFEE TEA SPICES TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 512-453-1533 Send me your list. Name Street City Zip 32 THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 27,1996 01.7.fek,1 ..,,,,, 1′