he Battalion
Monday, November 28, 1988
College Station, Texas
Vol. 88 No. 64 USPS 045360 12 Pages
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans
far and away say reducing the bud
get deficit should be George Bush’s
top priority as president, and most
favor a tax crackdown and defense
cuts to accomplish it, a Media Gen
eral-Associated Press survey has
found.
Respondents to the national poll
firmly opposed most new or higher
taxes to address the deficit, and most
also opposed cuts, in domestic pro
grams such as welfare or a freeze in
Social Security benefits.
America calls
deficit woes
top priority
t hit
support higher federal taxes on ciga
rettes and alcohol, and a narrow ma
jority, 52 percent, favored reduc
tions in defense spending to cut the
deficit.
The survey also found over
whelming support for an Internal
Revenue Service crackdown to col
lect taxes, an approach urged by
Democratic nominee Michael Duka
kis in the presidential campaign but
ridiculed by Bush.
The 1,084 adults polled were
asked: “What do you think should be
George Bush’s No. 1 priority once
he takes office?” Thirty-four percent
said the deficit, an unusually high
rate of agreement in an open-ended
question.
No other category drew a re
sponse rate in the double digits.
Seven percent cited other economic
matters, 5 percent said poverty or
homelessness, 5 percent said defense
and the rest were scattered over a
range of issues.
Only 3 percent said drugs, an is
sue that ranked far higher in impor
tance in pre-election polls during the
summer but then faded in the fall as
concern about the deficit rose.
On drugs, the poll found support
for drug testing of all federal work
ers, for military drug patrols at the
nation’s borders and for a crack
down on drug users.
The survey also found broad sup
port for aggressive measures to ad
dress the trade deficit, including
higher import taxes and quotas. It
found some support for restrictions
on foreign investments in the United
States, but not if that investment cre
ates jobs.
The poll, conducted Nov. 10 to
20, had a margin of sampling error
of plus or minus 3 percentage
points.
Although the budget deficit was
the leading issue, signals were mixed
on how to address it. Two-thirds fa
vored higher corporate taxes, for ex
ample, but a third of that group said
they would change their minds if
corporations responded to tax hikes
by raising prices.
Opposition to most other taxes
was stronger: Eight in 10 opposed
higher personal income taxes, three-
quarters opposed higher gasoline
taxes, three-quarters opposed taxing
the Social Security benefits of
higher-income Americans, and 64
percent opposed a national sales tax.
More than seven in 10, however,
approved of higher cigarette and al
coholic beverage taxes. Even more
popular was an IRS crackdown “to
make sure people and companies
pay their full taxes,” with 87 percent
approval.
On the expenditures side, eight in
10 opposed a freeze in Social Secu
rity cost-of-living increases, seven in
10 opposed welfare cuts, seven in 10
opposed cutting the Medicare bene
fits of higher-income Americans and
six in 10 opposed cuts in farm sup
port.
Family Feud
Texas A&M student Steven Koons hugs his girlfriend, Renee D’Arcy,
a University of Texas student during the A&M-UT game on Thurs-
Photo by Scott D. Weaver
day. A&M won the game 28-24. The win gave A&M a five game win
ning streak against UT.
Texas Thanksgiving death toll hits 28
Associated Press
The Thanksgiving holiday death
toll on Texas highways rose on Sun
day to 28, including 5-year-old
Houston girl whose mother has since
Senate poised for change
with pick of majority leader
WASHINGTON (AP) — Majority
Democrats gained only a single Sen
ate seat in this month’s elections, but
the chamber is likely to undergo a
personality change with the choos
ing of a new majority leader this
week.
The current majority leader, Rob
ert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., is stepping
down to assume the chairmanship of
the powerful Senate Appropriations
Committee, taking with him his un
paralleled parliamentary expertise
and a courtly style.
Running to replace him in one of
the toughest elections they will ever
face are Sens. Daniel K. Inouye, D-
Hawaii, J. Bennett Johnston, D-La.,
and George Mitchell, D-Maine. The
election takes place Tuesday.
While they can’t match Byrd’s
knowledge of the rules, the candi
dates have appealed to fellow Demo
crats with promises to keep the ung
ainly institution on schedule and to
make other reforms.
Inouye, 64, is the oldest of the
three and the most senior in the Sen
ate, having first been elected in
1962.
“My experience, my seniority,
should be in my favor,” Inouye said
in appearance with his two rivals
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
While he won praise for his eloqu
ence and incisiveness during the
1973 Watergate hearings, Inouye’s
reputation was seen by some to be
tarnished when the Iran-Contra
hearings he helped direct turned
into a televised platform for White
House aide Oliver North. He also
ran into criticism for inserting in a
spending bill $8 million in federal
aid for a schools for North African
Jews living in France.
Johnston is perhaps most like
Byrd in his command of the legis
lative labyrinth, but he is also the
most public in pushing for change.
The 56-year-old senator, in his
third term, has been rapidly gaining
influence. He is chairman of the En
ergy and Natural Resources Com
mittee and chairman of the Appro
priations energy subcommittee. In
the last Congress, he often handled
difficult bills on the Senate floor for
retiring appropriations chairman
John Stennis, D-Miss.
Johnston has the support of
Southern senators including Lloyd
Bentsen, D-Texas, and Sam Nunn,
D-Ga. If that conservative wing of
the party is ascendant, Johnston, a
moderate, could help move the
Democrats’ image away from the lib
eral one that seems to hurt them in
national elections.
“Clearly my centrist approach is
an advantage,” Johnston said on
NBC.
been charged with involuntary man
slaughter in connection with the fa
tal car accident.
Also included in the Associated
Press unofficial tally of traffic deaths
since 6 p.m. Wednesday were two
Houston teen-agers who died in a
crash north of Huntsville during a
rainstorm. The count continues
through midnight Sunday.
Police said tests showed Kristi Joy
Everts of Houston was intoxicated
when she tried to turn off Clay Road
about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Her ve
hicle was struck by a westbound car.
Seven hours later, Courtney Allen
Everts, died from injuries suffered
in the crash.
Everts was in serious condition at
Hermann Hospital late Saturday.
Lasonia Gail Dobbins, 18, and
Carmen Denise Washington, 19,
both of Houston died in a one-car
accident on Interstate 45 about 13
miles north of Huntsville during a
Saturday morning rainstorm. Inves
tigators said the car’s driver, Wilford
Earl Stevens Jr., 29, had lost control
of the vehicle while traveling at high
rate of speed and was in stable con
dition at Huntsville Memorial Hos
pital.
Henry Shephard, 46, of Houston,
died after losing control of his van
and slamming into a steel post on a
Houston street about 9:25 p.m. Fri
day.
Harvey Lee Ledford, 63, of Ga
lena Park, also died after losing con
trol of his van. His vehicle struck a
guardrail about 11 a.m. Friday and
he died about three hours later at
Sunbelt Regional Medical Center.
Tina Thomas, 23, of Houston,
was killed in Pearland about 6:50
p.m. Friday when an auto driven by
her husband, Brett Thomas, 25, was
struck by another vehicle.
Texans may gain 3 House seats
WASHINGTON (AP) — Al
though they haven’t brought out
their maps or started drawing the
lines for Texas’ new congressional
districts, reapportionment experts
are already mulling the politically
touchy work ahead.
Bob Mansker, who helped draw
up the congressional districts now in
place, says he thinks Texas will gain
three, maybe four, seats in Congress
after the 1990 census is taken. That
would increase the state’s House del
egation from 27 members to 30 or
31.
While that means the state carves
out a bigger share of the 435 seats in
the U.S. House, it also means some
of the state’s existing congressmen
may have to give up a slice of their
district and a bit of their power base.
At issue, officials say, is whether a
shift in district boundaries will con
tinue to give the incumbent con
gressman the votes needed for re-
election.
The private Population Reference
Bureau predicted in August that
California’s population gains would
give it five more seats in Congress,
with Texas adding four and Florida
three. Because the House is limited
to 435 seats, some states will suffer
losses. The population bureau pre
dicted New York and Pennsylvania
each would lose three seats, with Illi
nois, Michigan and Ohio losing two
each.
Should Texas gain three House
seats, Mansker said he believes the
new districts would be squeezed into
North Texas around Dallas, and the
Houston and San Antonio areas. A
fourth seat would likely go to South
Texas.
If Texas gains four seats, it would
be in the unusual position of having
as many congressmen as state sen
ators, said Mansker, press secretary
to Rep. Martin Frost, a Dallas Demo
crat.
That could create a situation
where some state senators would
want their district to match the con
gressional district.
Rape characteristics, defense tactics vary
And Democrats hope that, unlike
the somewhat stiff Byrd, the new
majority leader will have a popular
appeal that emanates to the nation
beyond Capitol Hill as Congress
does battle over the budget with a
new Republican president.
A&M student
reports attack
in dormitory
A Texas A&M student reported
that she was sexually assaulted in her
room in Fowler Hall by an acquaint
ance on Nov. 22.
A spokesman for the University
Police Department said Sunday that
a warrant has been issued for the at
tacker’s arrest. The police spokes
man said the suspect is not an A&M
student.
The assault occurred between 9
p.m. and 10 p.m., the student re
ported.
The 19-year-old student told po
lice that the acquaintance drove to
College Station from Dallas and that
she was supposed to return to Dallas
with him.
By Laurie Tomasini
Reporter
Rape is an act of violence, not an
act of passion or sex.
“The rapist is a thief,” said Robert
E. Wiatt, director of security and
University Police. “Stealing from the
victim and degrading the victim is
the rapist’s greatest pleasure.”
Linda Castoria, director of the
Brazos County Rape Crisis Center,
said sexual assualt does not occur be
cause of sexual desire.
“It does not matter what a victim
looks like or what she wears,” she
said. “If a person crosses the rapist’s
path, she will be his victim.
“A lot of rapists cannot describe
their victim. She was not a woman to
them, just a victim.”
A sexual assault prevention man
ual from the College Station Police
Department describes three types of
rapists.
“Power” rapists are most com
mon, according to the manual. Sev
enty-five percent of sexual assaults
occur because the rapist wants to
demonstrate power over the victim.
The rapist’s intent is not to harm the
victim — beyond the assault itself —
but he will use any force or threats
he needs to get his way.
The rapist may believe he is inad
equate and is looking for power he
thinks he lacks.
The rapist usually plans the “po
wer” assault in advance.
Wiatt said the “power” rapist fan
tasizes about the assault and how he
thinks the victim will enjoy it before
he actually commits the crime.
“Angry” rapists are the second
most common, according to the
manual, accounting for about 24
percent of all sexual assaults.
The “angry” rapist is likely to use
violent and profane language as well
as physical violence. The assaults
usually are unplanned.
Wiatt said this rapist hates fe
males.
“The rapist holds females respon
sible for failure and rejection,” he
said. “He retaliates by taking sex,
hurting and terrorizing the victim.”
“Sadistic” rapists are uncommon,
according to the manual. About 1
percent of sexual assaults are sadistic
rapes.
The sadistic rapist gets pleasure
from the victim’s physical and men
tal suffering. The rapist’s intent is to
hurt and destroy the victim.
The rapist intentionally injures
his victim, especially in the genital
area.
Wiatt said that sadistic assaults
usually are planned. The victim may
be kidnapped or killed.
The sadistic rapist is most feared,
he said.
The type and motivation of the
rapist is the most important factor to
consider when deciding a course of
action or defense against a sexual as
sault, Wiatt said.
Although there is no single defi
nite defense against rape, he said,
three critical variables must be con
sidered before any action is taken in
self-defense.
First, the location and environ
ment where the attack occurs must
be considered.
Different actions should be taken
in different environments, Wiatt
said.
“Blowing a whistle might scare the
attacker away in the Skaggs parking
lot at 3 in the afternoon,” he said.
“But a whistle will not do any good
on a deserted road at 3 a.m.”
Second, the personality of the vic
tim must be considered.
Popping the attacker’s eye out
with a finger is a simple and effective
defense, but not many people could
bring themselves to do it, he said.
The rape prevention manual
pointed out that injuring an attacker
in such severe ways should not be at
tempted unless it can be followed
through.
Third, the personality of the rap
ist is critical to defense.
The same action that might deter
one type of rapist might cause an
other type of rapist to kill his victim,
Wiatt said.
Castoria said the situation must be
weighed when determining a de
fense.
According to the prevention man
ual, there is no foolproof method of
defense.
Each defensive technique has pros
and cons, and every rapist and every
situation is different, so judgments
on which actions should be taken
must be made accordingly.
The manual describes two types
of defense: active resistance and pas
sive resistance.
Active resistance is screaming or
fighting back.
A scream can surprise or frighten
an attacker. Screaming “Fire” is ef
fective if people are around to hear,
because they will look and pay atten
tion, which might scare the rapist
away.
Struggling and fighting back may
make the rapist give up or give the
victim a chance to escape.
The victim must be willing to hurt
the attacker, and all kicks or blows
must be forceful and aimed at vul
nerable areas. A hard kick on the
groin, a poke in the eye or a hard hit
against the front of the throat can
disable an attacker.
Weapons can be useful, according
to the manual. However, weapons
are not always accessible, and they
often are used against the victim in
stead of the attacker.
Passive resistance involves on stay
ing calm. The aim is to psychologi
cally outsmart the attacker.
Passive self-defense is based on
the idea that rapists are violent and
dangerous and that they will counter
any active resistance with violence.
Talking to the rapist is a good ap
proach, according to the manual.
“Try the mother or daughter ap
proach, appealing to the rapist’s
sympathy.”
It also suggests that victims:
•Tell the rapist they have a con
tagious disease.
• Tell the rapist they are preg
nant or just had an abortion.
• Build up the rapist’s self-confi
dence by saying something like,
“You can get any girl you want, why
do this?”
• Tell the rapist their husband or
boyfriend will be back shortly.
See Rape/Page 5