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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 8, 1978)
Viewpoint The Battalion Texas A&M University Thursday June 8, 1978 Time for energy compromise The compromise bill worked out on the future of natural gas in this coun- tiy is no “victory” for President Carter, nor for the gas industry, nor for the anti-industry consumerists. But it is, to paraphrase Lyndon Johnson, the only bill we’ve got. It is demonstrably the only chance we’ll have this year, perhaps for many years to come, to solve a problem this nation simply must address. Granted, the bill’s “solution” is imperfect. Granted, it is a compromise which thoroughly pleases no one. But what else did one expect? There’ll be a lot of regulatory headaches between now and 1985. Tempo rary controls on gas produced and sold within the same state. Thorny in terpretations of what is “new” gas. Legislative language must yet be drafted to cover some veiy intricate details of the gas producing and distribution business. Many Republicans and free marketeers will decry these continued and expanded regulations and vote against the bill. Many Democrats and market regulators will rant about ripoffs and rape of the consumer and vote against the bill. This unlikely coalition could unhinge the compromise. That, we submit, would be a disaster. The bill is not perfect, but it at least would achieve eventual deregulation. It is the only measure yet seriously considered by Congress that recognizes the profound truth that there are no painless answers to the country’s energy shortage. To let the bill die amid the bickering of ideologues of the right and left would mean more years of confusion and uncertainty in the energy market, more years of useless recrimination and a deeper and deeper dependence on energy imports. If the compromise bill is drafted faithfully according to the principles agreed upon it should become law. The United States cannot afford the alternative. The Birmingham (Ala.) PostHerald Mutiny stirring on Carter s ship? By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON — Whatever it reveals about the deteriorating state of U.S.- Soviet relations, last week s presidential outburst against the reported “freeze” on the strategic arms (SALT) talks speaks vol umes about the heightening tensions within the Carter administration’s foreign policy and national security bureaucracy. When Jimmy Carter cracked down on the Washington Post’s report that adminis tration decisions had “efiectively frozen the SALT talks, at least through summer, the newspaper was only the immediate ob ject of his anger. The strong presidential statement was also aimed at those inside his own official family who had challenged his authority and credibility by giving the Post re porters the information from which they wrote. AS IS HIS CUSTOM when his credibil ity is challenged by anyone, Carter re sponded by saying the criticsm was “abso lutely untrue.” But that is not accurate. As Jody Powell, the President’s press secretary, said: “I’m not questioning the fact that the story was based on people saying what they said. “But, Powell continued,” you’ve got to be careffiL..not to confuse tough negotiat ing, which has been going on all along, with some sort of decision to freeze or to slow down or to run in place for to mark time, because of extraneous factors. That is the crux of the matter. That is correct, I think. And what is at issue between the President and the Post is how correctly those matters were inter preted, not by the reporters but by offi cials high in Carter’s own administration. I do not know the sources my colleagues Walter Pincus and Robert G. Kaiser used in reporting on the arms talks. But I do know that when the Post pub lishes such a story, in the face of a strong presidential denial (carried high in the first story), the editors and reporters involved must be convinced of the credentials of the “authoritative government sources” whose views are quoted. THAT MEANS ONE of two things. Either the President failed to communi cate to those officials what his tactics are in the arms talks, or they are convinced that those tactics will not produce the results the President says he wants. My guess is that both factors are in volved here. It is always hard to keep all the players cued in on developments in a continuing negotiation. And that is partic ularly difficult when the President is jug gling a heavy agenda, when the national se curity adviser is fresh back from Peking, and when the secretary of state is commut ing to the United Nations. But the reasons why Carter’s own lieutenants dissent from his handling of the arms talks tactics go beyond that. Some of them fear that he is being manipu lated by National Security Adviser Zbig niew Brzezinski, whose penchant for using provocative tactics with the Russians has been evident — they think — from the beginning of the administration. Others believe that domestic political advisers are mistakenly, in their view, pressing Carter to take a “hard line” with the Russians in order to combat his reputa tion as a weak leader in domestic affairs. There is a certain surface plausibility to both theories. Brzezinski’s public state- ments on SALT, plus his well-advertised disposition to “shake up the old men in the Politboro, make him a logical target for those who disagree with the tactics. FOR A PRESIDENT who must bite his tongue in frustration when labor leaders, Congress and the consumer price index defy his wishes, the temptation to take it out on the Russians must seem great. But these interpretations overlook one important fact. Jimmy Carter has a passionate, personal commitment to re duce the threat of nuclear war on this globe. No one who knows him can se riously doubt that is one of the deepest desires that drove him to pursue his presi dency. The sooner the President can make that goal clear again, the faster he can ease the doubts that are undermining his position within his own administration. (c) I97H, The Washington Tost Co. ‘A singularly joyless people 9 Glimpses of Cambodian no man’s land By JOAN HANAUER UPI Television Writer NEW YORK — Cambodia is undergo ing the ultimate revolution and while it has a few admirers, to most observers it is repressive perhaps to the point of what one observer calls auto-genocide. The CBS News Special: “Whafs Hap pened to Cambodia?” which went on the air Wednesday highlights both the major aspects of the revolution and the main dif ficulty with accurately gauging it. An chorman Ed Bradley ticks off the cities from Belgrade to Bangkok that the net work news teams roamed in putting to gether the documentary. He is forced to add the one place CBS was unable to go was Cambodia. Denied access to Cambodia, or Demo cratic Kampuchea, as the Communists who took over three years ago prefer to call it, the network interviewed experts — including those first-hand observers, the Cambodians in Thailand refugee camps. It also shows excerpts from a film taken by a Yugoslav television crew this spring and those are among the most fascinating aspects of the program. They show street scenes in Phnom Pehnh — scenes of empty streets, uninha bited houses, deserted shops. Where are the people? They have been sent to cooperatives, to building sites, to wherever the secretive rulers of their country believe they are needed in a land that has foresworn money, salaries and such other luxuries as postal service. The Yugoslav film shows the Cambo dians as a singularly joyless people. Perhaps they are sullen, perhaps they re flect a seriousness of purpose. Form your own judgments. But it is difficult to retain objectivity "TH£ PTA IS SWID. YlOfbNTSHOWS DON'T AfP6CT /W0N6 . WHY I'l/e 0£eN IN TV 25 YEAftS NOW AND ... BANG, g-ANG/ Gof Yot\ THAT XlMS/OTTLEY/... " when you hear a small Cambodian boy in a refugee camp talk about the execution of his family — and watch him wipe away his tears as he talks of revenge. An Australian author and journalist based in Hong Kong estimates that be tween 1.8 million and 2.2 million Cambo dians have died since 1975 as a conse- quence of Cambodian policies, including execution. He calls it “autogenocide, where one race kills half or even more than half of its own race. ” Another Cambodia-watcher believes the present Cambodian government wants to kill everyone who worked for the previ ous administration — all the soldiers, offi cials, teachers, engineers, everybody. Summing up, Bradley says, “There is no longer even a vestige of urban society in Cambodia; no longer a conventionally educated class; no longer even the kind of civilization there is in any other Com munist country — no money, no private dwellings, you can’t shop for food or clothes. We know there has been, and al most certainly still is, great hardship and many, many deaths.” The CBS picture of Cambodia is not pretty and admittedly may not even be to tally accurate. But it is thought-provoking and frightening. Not all college politics is dull By HARRIET LEEDS United Press International MADISON, Wis. — The standard in troduction line for the newly elected pres ident and vice president of the University of Wisconsin Student Association is “send in the clowns.” As candidates, James Mallon and Leon Varjian promised to convert the student government’s $70,000 budget into pen nies, dump it on the library mall and let students attack the pile with pails and shovels. Their burlesque campaign of daily ral lies on the mall attracted hundreds of people and captured the interest of stu dent voters. The two received 1,510 votes out of 4,529 cast — the largest turnout in five years and a near-record for the 39,000-member student body. Members of the “Pail and Shovel Party” also won all of the 1979 senior class officer seats, rounded up five student Senate spots and won posts on the boards of the student newspaper and yearbook. Among the zany campaign pledges were: —Buying the Statue of Liberty and moving it to Madison’s Lake Mendota. —Ordering all campus clocks to run backward so classes would be over before they could begin. — Putting dormitories on wheels so they could be moved to a different part of the campus each morning to provide stu dents with a new perspective. —Periodic flooding of Camp Randall Stadium for mock naval battles. “The students felt we had the best cam paign platform,” Varjian said. “We built it in front of them on the mall with 1,000 popsicle sticks.” Mallon and Varjian said they bought the election fair and square — and it cost them $35 million in play money distributed at campaign rallies to do it. But not everyone is pleased with the election results. Some students fear the antics of the Pail and Shovelers will jeopardize the WSA budget, on-going projects and the credibil ity of student government with university and state officials. Paul Rusk, former WSA president, said he and many others were upset at the prospect of the damage the “two profes sional clowns could do. “To give a year of my life for WSA and then have something like this happen is the ultimate insult, Rusk said. Both Mallon and Varjian insist they are motivated solely by greed. T felt there was a lot more WSA could offer me — payoffs, kickbacks, stationery allotments,” Varjian said. Mallon, 22, a communication arts major, describes himself as a “modern philosopher king, ” but a rookie in campus politics. “I’m in it for as much as I can get. Wherever the money’s the best, I ll be there. After this. I’m going to sell my memoirs for $25 a crack. Just think, if I get four people to buy. I’ll have $100.” Writing the editor The Battalion welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. However, to be acceptable for publication these letters must meet certain criteria. They should: V Not exceed 300 words or 1800 characters in length. V Be neatly typed whenever possible. Hand-written letters are acceptable. V Include the author’s name, address and telephone number for verification. Names will be withheld on request. FEEM by Doug Graham jL Top of the News Prizes State By Jordan accepts professorship Brined w Rep. Barbara Jordan, D-Texas, who retires from Congress at tk leading off of her current term, has accepted a professorship at University of Texas’ Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. He UT Board of Regents Friday is expected to formally establish the an post for Ms. Jordan to teach intergovernmental relations and ethics. The position will pay $38,(XX) a year for five years beginning ii January. ironic ce acts, than nbers c M Univ the ann -Parents, E‘ ■ county Briscoe invests $2.9 million llJe Vp ieir indivi Governor Dolph Briscoe invested $2.9 million in his unsuccessful 0 rjudging try for re-election, according to his campaign expense report to tic tion, said secretary of state. Loans co-signed by political backers were a lar^grieultura chuck of his total expenditures — $1,996,(XX). The report showdjncl youth $112,500 of the loans were repaid, which means Briscoe supporten i are $983,500 in debt. Jibbons, were give Gay conference in Dallas femonstn ^ Bvement I he Fifth Texas Cay Conference lias been scheduled lor the Roy f®” 11 t(1 ' Coach Inn in Dallas next Saturday and Sunday, according to tic s P e£ organization’s publicity chairperson Brian Halliday. "EducationBe-F” 686 1 fore Legislation will be theme of the conference which will incluJc F m em workshops on aspects of homosexual lifestyles for men and women |? y ear and how they apply to the human rights issue. Blether i aining a bok. Geo Nation Wallace may run for term icultural ■cialist, Thirty-s ions dona' >f the cm Gov. George C. Wallace is seriously considering running for the late Sen. James B. Allen s unexpired Senate term, a press aide said Wednesday. Wallace announced May 16 that he was pullingoutof the Senate race to succeed retiring Sen. John J. Sparkman, sayinghe did not want to move to Washington, D.C. But Camp said Wallace began reassessing his political future after Allen died last Thursday ware as work oi dpt'cal udging Disco outlawed in Henryetta “We ver 70 vork ( eannir Bits iterati open Disco dancing may be the rage nationwide, but the law won tallow it in Henryetta, Okla. Or any dancing for that matter. City Manager Chester Simons said Henryetta s law declares, “No person or organi zation can conduct a public dance in the city, period.” 1'lyl tarte Thi Srafts Flynt accuses FBI, CIA Hustler magazine owner Larry Flynt believes be was shot by either the FBI or the Central Intellegence Agency. Phil Donahue, hostofa television talk show, asked Flynt why he believes it was one of the two federal agencies that shot him. “Why did they shoot (Dr. Martin Luther) King?” Flynt asked in reply. Floods sweep South Residents of states from Arizona to Louisiana are poised for flood- waters from torrential rains that swept the South to the Atlantic Coast. Flash flood warnings were posted in parts of Lea County in southea.s'tern Arizona. FlasJr flood sLaSIchc% wfcre up fbpimany sOctp! of Texas and also in northern and >ves,tern Louisiana,'southern wla- * homa and Arkansas. lonnr There a n 14 dist ■opi 9 to 1 Satures p: iroup, ag< Bn the Mesday i vas given 'exas 4-H eople wJ en< roperty, 1st year Jury deliberates Hughes case op Eight Nevada jurors began deliberations Wednesday to decide if Howard Hughes wrote a will elevating a Utah service station atten-j dant to an overnight millionaire. Lawyers talked 10 full days to sum marize and refute evidence in the trial, possibly the richest and i longest jury probate case in the country, that began seven months] ago. World From 'risbee [oga, the arses t it abou jFree 1 enty t ien in c it this \ arses f Bockslide buries sunbathers Part of a mountainside slid down on a crowded bathing beach today at Ischia, Italy, a popular resort island off the Naples coast, Inrryinga number of bathers under tons of boulders and soil. Police said initial efforts to uncover the victims showed at least four persons dead and another three injured. Pope blasts abortion “Our j redit c< fee Ur Blute sai ilCours faculty a enrollme Most of the first i A fee c classes. Three Pope Paul VI said Wednesday that Italy’s new law legalizing abor tion is a “serious offense against the law of God,’’ and all Roman Catholics should oppose it. The pope also commended a statement by his Vicar of Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, that Roman Catholic doctors performing abortions face excommunication from the church. Mexico, U.S. to battle pollution Mexico and the United States agreed Wednesday on a joint pro gram to fight environmental pollution, with emphasis on contamina tion along their 2,000 mile border. The program was set up under a memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Mexican Subsecretariat for Environmental Improvement. the stuc burths ( 'efund i: iass. [ “Whe dents wc show up the stin terested Some material “We I ke. Me Weather Partly cloudy with little change in temperatures. High today upper 80s, low tonight mid-60s. High tomorrow upper 80s. Winds variable at 5-10 mph. Slight chance of widely scattered thunder showers decreasing to less than 20% later today. The Rattalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the University administration or the Board of Re gents. 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Address: The Battalion, Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas United Press International is entitled exclusiwlf* use for reproduction of all news dispatches credit^* Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Represented nationally by National Educational Adver tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Editor Debit)- Sports Editor David M News Editor Lee Roy LexV City Editor Gary" 1 Campus Editor Flavia^ Photo Editor The Battalion is published Monday through Friday from September through May except during exam and holiday periods and the summer, when it is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Student Publications Board: Boh G. Rogers. ('^ Joe Anedondo, Dr. Gary Halt it. Or. Chur/rsMiO* Dr. Cdinton A. Phillips, Rebel Rkv. Directoroj^ Publications: Donald C. Johnson. ntf :