ustxtxb_obs_2002_07_05_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

THE TEXAS OBSERVER IS SEEKING AN OFFICE MANAGER/ CIRCULATION MANAGER Nonprofit, progressive biweekly publication of Texas politics, arts and culture, seeks a FT Office Mgr./Circulation Mgr. with excellent organizational and interpersonal skills. Duties include invoicing subscribers, bookkeeping, maintaining subscriptions database, supervising mailing and distribution, answering phones, sorting mail, maintaining office equipment and ordering supplies. Requires office administration exp, good people skills, & skills in word processing, spreadsheet, database and accounting software. Starting salary $22,500 + benefits, negotiable depending on exp. Send resume & cover letter of interest: THE TEXAS OBSERVER 307 W 7TH ST, AUSTIN, TX 78701 [email protected] OR FAX TO 512-474-1175 JULY 5, 2002 Texas Observer FEATURES THE DONKEY KICKS 4 The Dream Team of Tony Sanchez, Ron Kirk, and John Sharp is the most pro business Democratic ticket in years. It may also be the most radical. by Nate Blakeslee ELEPHANTS AT WAR 8 In Dallas, G. 0.P still means God’s Own Party, but are the end times nearer than some may think? by Jake Bernstein WHOSE MOVEMENT IS THIS ANYWAY? 10 In the 1960s, the civil rights and anti-war movements were like oil and water. Now the global justice movement has a war of its own to consider. by Will Potter DEPARTMENTS DIALOGUE 2 EDITORIAL 3 At Long Last, a New Texas? LAS AMERICAS 12 Imagine There’s No Water by Gabriela Bocagrande POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE 14 MOLLY IVINS 16 Israel, the Third Rail JIM HIGHTOWER 17 Greedus Maximus BOOKS & THE CULTURE POETRY 21 by Renato Rosaldo AND THE SHARK HAS PRETTY TEETH, DEAR 22 by Anna Mayo SECRET AGENT MEN 24 by Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN 26 by Rebecca Bengal AFTERWORD 30 Trinity Site: America’s First Ground Zero by Carrie Fountain Cover photos by Barbara Schlief DIALOGUE DAN STRAWN IS GONE Dan Strawn of Kenedy and Austin died last month. He was buried in Kenedy on June 18, 2002. He was 76. In the early years of the Observer, Strawn contributed numerous pieces, mostly about politics and culture in and around Karnes County. He was extremely funny, without seeming to try. \(He was aided in this by local officials who were willing to be quoted his ostensibly spare account of the destruction, by fire, of the Runge Fire Station. Good journalist that he was, he pointed out the fact that the Station had been condemned as a fire hazard some significant time earlier by the Runge Fire Marshall. Strawn also scrawled this little piece: “KEEP GOING. I AMA KLUTZ.” He was both a very bright man and a very well educated one, a combination we know to be not always conjunctive. Very unostentatiously, he aided local students with college money. I grew up in Kenedy and he was my good friend, there and in Austin, for nearly fifty years. I am going to miss our phone calls every week, lunches, and all the laughs. So will others in the Observer ken. Ben Sarrett Port Aransas RAW, JUDICIAL HYPOCRISY In his dissent to the recent U.S. Supreme Court 6-3 ruling prohibiting execution of the mentally retarded, Justice Antonin Scalia called the decision “an exercise of raw, judicial power.” I assume he kept a straight face, just as if he and four more of the seven Republicans on the court did not exercise raw, judicial power in handing the White House to W. in a “no precedent, for this case only” 5-4 decision in December 2000. Robert Heard Via e-mail REAL AGGIES WEAR GREEN I am president-elect of the Green party chapter of Texas A&M University and am doing a bit of research on Wendy Gramm, and I read Nate Blakeslee’s editorial \(“Find Another Aggie,” got his information that Texas A&M lost money on Enron investments, and that the university subsequently entered into a class-action lawsuit to regain it. This information would be most helpful, and I would be quite grateful for your assistance. Many others have said it, but it won’t hurt to repeat it:You guys are worth all the big papers combined. Dimitrije Kostic College Station Nate Blakeslee replies: The information about Texas A&M’s Enron-related losses came from figures released by the Texas Attorney General’s office in January. 2 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7/5/02