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DIALOGUE DECEMBER 7, 2001 Texas Observer FEATURE SPYING IS BACK 6 A lieutenant governor candidate is running on his CIA record, and the Texas Department of Public Safety is “back in the intelligence business.”Welcome to the Homeland. by Anne Farbman HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE LAW 10 An interview with UT Law Professor Sarah Cleveland. by Sandra Spicher DEPARTMENTS DIALOGUE EDITORIAL Someone to Watch Over Me DATELINE TEXAS in Hays County by Karen Olsson POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE MOLLY IVINS To Bob, Wise and Wonderful ANDREW WHEAT Enron Fries In Its Own Juices OPEN FORUM by James Harrington 2 4 12 13 14 15 BOOKS & THE CULTURE SULPHUR RIVER REDUX Thank you for the accurate and concise editorial that you wrote regarding the Sulphur River. Your editorial and the accurate investigative article by Nate Blakeslee \(“Drowned by Dallas,” to an issue that has seen great efforts from developers to keep in darkness. The Texas Observer lifts the issue of the Sulphur River and Marvin Nichols from the designed obscurity that the Sulphur River Basin Authority had hoped would exist.The special interests that propose Marvin Nichols Lake have been saying that the reservoir enjoyed great support locally and statewide, and that those of us that oppose it are a small and insignificant group. The article puts the facts up for examination in a way that the Observer does best. It gives our David versus Goliath battle added energy and a slingshot and facts to throw in the face of the Sulphur River Basin Authority. Oran Caudle Via e-mail OUR FAVORITE TEXAN IN MANHATTAN Debbie Nathan’s dream article \(“Little clear-eyed and emotionally truthful response that I’ve read to the terrorist attacks, a parent’s death, and the confusion I’ve experienced myself over whether to live in New England, where I’m comfortable, or Texas, where I was born. I’d like to thank her especially for weaving the country’s good versus evil mythology with her own more ambiguous experiences. Great writing. Sarah Grth Via e-mail WATCH WHERE WE’RE GOING! Molly’s went and done it again! \(“The Braced by overwhelming American public support, Bush has been flying blind toward an unknown destination in his “New War.” Besides raising fateful moral and legal issues, the expedient U.S. policy of massively bombarding an already ravished Afghanistan is clearly more reflexive that reflective; recalling the old adage, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re liable to end up somewhere elseand not even know it.” T.S. Corin Austin LIBERATE “GRANNY D”! President Bush, in asking for the power to establish military courts to try terrorism suspects, is rapidly laying the groundwork for martial law in Americafor the suspension of the very rights that make our flag worth defending. Do we trust the people now in control of our government to properly discriminate between real terrorists and those who are, instead, honorable citizens with contrary opinions to express non-violently? The people who now protect us from airborne nail clippers and tweezers will soon be protecting us from members of the Green and Reform partiesthen our neighbors and then members of our own families. If this comment seems like a rash overreaction, note that 91-yearold cross-country walker Doris “Granny D” Haddock, who dared suggest that campaign finance reform is needed to clean up the corruption of Congress, is now singled out for hand searches and frisking at every airport. Dennis Burke Phoenix, 4Z THANKSGIVING Thank you for voicing my views in print, specifically Dugger’s “What are to know one is not the Lone Ranger. Cliff Olofson was my wife’s cousin and we have followed you and Molly Ivins for a number of years. Just a profound thank-you. Ken Sayers Alameda, CA POETRY by James Howard WAS DADDY A KLANSMAN? by Benjamin Heber Johnson WASTE WARRIORS by James McWilliams AFTERWORD On Justice: An American Melodrama by Farid Matuk 2 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 16 17 20 22