ustxtxb_obs_2000_03_31_50_00020-00000_000.pdf

Go AHEAD Do IT. JUST Po VT` EMI II. CIIRIP How’s A GUY Suppose 10 FINISH UIS SPEECH //ON COMPASSIONATE CoNsERVATisM IF 100 KEEP INTERRUPTIN WITH \(, k, EXECUTIoNlY /14/t/se bsf POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE THE WAR PARTY. Maverick Republican Ron Paul is one of two Texans \(the other is signed the John Conyers Congressional letter calling on President Clinton to lift the brutal economic sanctions against Iraq. He is also one of the few Congressmen willing to take on the administration \(and the Kosovo war. In a statement released in mid-March, Paul compared the NATO version of the war to a Nazi or Soviet “propaganda barrage,” and cited a Liberty magazine report by David Ramsay Steele which investigated U.S., NATO, and U.N. charges of genocide by the Serbians and found them grossly exaggerated, and that most of the mass refugee crisis used to justify the bombing occurred in response to it. Noting pre-bombing casualty estimates of 100,000 or more ethnic Albanians, Steele found that actual deaths are now estimated at about 2,000 and, Paul notes, “it is hardly evident that each of those bodies was killed as a result of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.” Paul also cites similar reports in the London Review of Books and the Spanish daily El Pat’s. Paul notes that neither the administration nor the press has been much interested in recent Kosovar attacks on Serbians, charging, “Instead of hearing the truth from our leadership, we were fed emotional tales of mass killing that were entirely blown out of proportion in order to justify force and violence in the region.” Paul blames a credulous press for not questioning those tales, and concludes, “Congress has shirked both its Constitutional responsibility to declare war before U.S. troops are sent into battle and its oversight responsibility to closely monitor the administration in its carrying out of foreign policy.” INCUMBENT HU31015, San Antonio House Democrat Leo Alvarado made a halfhearted run for the Senate seat vacated by the death of Greg Luna, lost, and now faces a runoff to hold onto the seat he was elected to seven years ago. Hoping to broaden his base, San Antonio freshman Democrat Juan Solis shared campaign funds and resources with House candidate Roberto Vasquez and was narrowly defeated by former city councilman Jose Menendez. can Bill Siebert offended his constituents by moonlighting as a lobbyist at City Hall. He lost by a 66-34 margin to Elizabeth Ames Jones, who questioned the ethics of a state rep lobbying before his hometown city council. Siebert said his legislative credentials in no way provided him with an advantage as a city hall lobbyist. He will have an opportunity to prove that next year. CAN’T BUY LOVE. “David Leibowitz Never Quits!” reads a campaign poster hanging on a fence near the San Fernando Cemetery on San Antonio’s West Side. And he didn’t. In the final ten days of the Democratic primary, Leibowitz spent a quarter of a million dollars on radio spots and direct mail aimed at interim Senator Leticia Van de Putte. After Democratic Rep Van de Putte won a special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of Greg Luna, she had a free ride in a district where no Republican has filed until Leibowitz moved in from the upscale Dominion subdivision, rented a condo, filed in the primary, and started spending. Leibowitz hired Austin media consultant Dean Rindy and spent more than a half million dollars depicting Van de Putte as an elected South ;. yw V 20 THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 31, 2000