ustxtxb_obs_1999_06_25_50_00024-00000_000.pdf

Photo Manipulation in Photoshop Make your photos more spectacular through digital enhancement, photo montage, colorizing, creative new compositions or simply digital cleaning. I can also digitize your favorite photos for safer, long-lasting archiving. [email protected] GRAY PANTHERS Join the intergenerational advocates working for single-payer national health care. $20 for individuals, $35 for families. 3710 Cedar, Austin, TX 78705. 307 West 5th Street Austin, Texas EDITORIAL “Record,” from page 4 rates are not declining? After the shootings in Littleton, Colorado, the only gun-related bill passed by the Texas Legislature was Jon Lindsay and Suzanna Gratia Hupp’s bill protecting manufacturers from lawsuits filed by cities that have to deal with the consequences of handgun violence. Why didn’t you oppose the bill, rather than signing it into law? Expect the Governor to say that such lawsuits are unfair to businesses, which are not responsible for the behavior of individuals that buy their products. Followup: If gun manufacturers cannot be held responsible for the consequences of the spread of handguns, what government actions do you support that would stop the spread of handguns? In mid-May, the Senate was shut down for a day and hundreds of bills died at deadline when Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on a hate crimes bill introduced in memory of James Byrd Jr., a black man dragged to death by white racists in Jasper last summer. Why didn’t you step in and take a position? Expect the Governor to yet again repeat that he said would consider signing a hate crimes bill if such a bill had made it to his desk. Followup: What is your position on the hate crimes legislation was it true that Republicans would have accepted it if it related only to race and not homosexuality, and isn’t a chief executive expected to be a leader and not just a passive recipient of the will of the legislative body? In a state that is fiftieth in per capita spending, why didn’t you apply the $1.7 billion in surplus in 1997 and the $6.7 bil NATIONAL WRITERS UNION We give working writers a fighting chance. Health insurance. Solidarity. Journalists, poets, commercial writers. E-mail: [email protected]. lion in surplus in 1999 to programs that have been underfunded for years rather than using the money to fund tax rebates? Expect the Governor to use the phrases “return tax dollars to the hands that created them, the taxpayers of Texas” and “limited government.” Followup: Isn’t government in a state that is fiftieth in per capita spending already sufficiently limited? Why did a fiscally conservative Republican Governor fail to dedicate some of the state’s budget surplus to the state’s Rainy Day Fund \(the fund got no 1999 appropriaThe Governor will probably respond that the strong Texas economy will continue to provide for all the basic services of government. Followup: What are “basic services?” Can the economy continue to expand without contraction, and is national state budget expert Hal Hovey wrong when he describes the Texas Rainy Day Fund as being “dangerously underfunded” in the event of an economic downturn \(but leaving the Governor in How do the exclusive drilling rights Harken Oil Company won in Bahrain, and the $850,000 profit on an insider trade of declare to the S.E.C. several weeks before the Gulf War, compare to Hillary Clinton’s sweetheart deal on cattle futures in 1979? At the mention of the Clintons, Governor Bush will respond that his most important job is being a father, that he loves his wife, and has wonderful parents. He will also add that he will not discuss the “indiscretions” of his youth and that he hasn’t had a drop of alcohol since his fortieth birthday. – L.D. Submissions needed for Appalachian anthology, focusing on ethnicity and gender in Appalachia. A not-for-profit project. For more information on submitting your work, visit http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/ 6315/project.htm or write Andrea Fekete at P.O.B. 88, Amherstdale, WV 25607. ANDERSON & COMPANY COFFEE TEA SPICES TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 512-L153-1533 Send me your list. Name Street City Zip 24 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JUNE 25, 1999