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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1993)
1993 tn Thursday, March 4,1993 Opinion The Battalion Page 9 t said Kent ss his Pf the phe- tand- ^om- itreet very ayers right ome- ig an ayed rears ath- to do have ar in four ;aid. :eam larch nnis 11 be 'exas y by g sket- the :nce, and n 10 e. mds 6-28 hey eon and ;ht," said ited 1. ten- like npo e us 1 us ons t n a f e a t 7 1 1 ) f r i Gridlock on the White House track Editorial Bush Librarygate Wilson should be The recent appointment of Dr. Don W. Wilson to the position of execu tive director of the George Bush Pres idential Library Center has come un der intense scrutiny. In defense of the appointment, the Office of Uni versity Relations has claimed that Wilson is unquestionably "the most qualified person to be executive di rector." However, there are a num ber of troubling issues that Bush Li brary and Texas A&M officials would be wise to keep in mind. At 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 19 - Presi dent Bush's last full day in office - Wilson signed an agreement giving Bush "exclusive legal control of all presidential information, and all de rivative information in whatever form." One month later, Wilson was named executive director of the Bush Library. The agreement gave the Bush ad ministration control of millions of items of electronic mail concerning domestic and foreign policy initia tives during the Reagan and Bush years. Sighificantly, this period of time covers the Iran-contra affair. This eleventh-hour agreement per mits "Bush or his.designee" to re view all of the records before allow ing anyone access. On this point, Wilson has stated that "no rights were given to the former president that are not already in existence un der current law." If this is so, one must question why the last minute agreement was even necessary. According to federal conflict-of-in terest laws, all officials are prohibited from participating in any matters in which they have a financial interest. At the time Wilson signed the agree ment, he was being seriously consid ered for the directorship of the Bush Library which provides an annual salary of $114,000. In light of these facts, the Senate Committee on Gov ernmental Affairs, under the leader ship of Sen. John Glenn, has asked the Justice Department and the Office of Government Ethics to investigate put on probation the allegations. Wilson insists that he took no part in any decisions or actions that could be construed as conflicts-of-interest. Though this remains to be deter mined, there are other factors inde pendent of this issue which bring Wilson's credibility into question. Last November, the Senate Gov ernmental Affairs Committee criti cized Wilson as an "absentee archivist" in fulfilling his duties as the Archivist of the United States. According to the panel, his deputy, Claudine Weiher, was in effect run ning the agency. Three weeks later, Wilson replaced Weiher. In addition- Wilson was criticized by the panel for his selection of Lawrence Oberg as the inspector general of the archives. When he was selected, Oberg was under federal investiga tion for suspicion of contract fraud. Although these accusations may be blown out of proportion, there is one charge of misconduct that cannot , be dismissed. Last January, federal Judge Charles R. Richey found that Wilson had violated the law govern ing federal record keeping when he "failed to fulfill his statutory duties under the Federal Records Act." Judge Richey said that this breach of duty occurred when Wilson failed to take preventative steps after being informed by the White House of its intention to delete computer records. In light of this information, one is led to question whether Wilson truly is "the most qualified person" for the job. It would be prudent for Texas A&M and Bush Library officials to consider placing Wilson on a proba tionary-type employment status pending the outcome of the investi gation. Texas A&M has certainly weathered more than its fair share of negative publicity among the nation al media, and this situation, if not handled properly, could tarnish the image of both the Bush Library and Texas A&M. Economy improved under Reagan regime I was surprised to see a fellow Aggie so obviously ignorant about the history of Reagan's presidency. Paul Greco in his Feb. 24 letter to the Batt says that he has seen no improvement in our econo my in the past twelve years. Apparently Greco has chosen to ig nore the facts. As the Bureau of Eco nomic Analysis points out, the prime in terest rate fell from 15.26 percent, where h was at the end of the Carter presiden cy, to 9.32 percent at the end of the Rea gan presidency. These numbers are replicated in al most every other area of the U.S. econo my. .. Inflation fell from 12-5 percent to 4.4 percent and civilian unemployment from 7.1 percent to 5.5 percent. The Dow Jones index rose from 950.68 to 2235.36, and the average disposable per capita in come for every ethnic group rose at least 16.5 percent. To add to these numbers, Gallup polls taken at the end of the Reagan era showed that most Americans thought they were better off at the end of the Reagan presidency than they were dur ing the Carter years. America clearly benefited from conservative leadership. Greco points out that the United States experienced a budget surplus un til the end of Lyndon Johnson's presi dency. This fact simply makes my argument because history shows that it was under Johnson's administration that Medicare and Medicaid as well as many other en titlement programs began. Today these programs comprise the biggest part of the budget. These poli cies are untouchable and no Republican was able to eliminate them substantially due to the Democratically controlled House of Representatives. If we are looking for a place to cut the budget, I would start by freezing spend ing, not increasing it as Clinton wants to do. Then cut welfare so many jobless Americans would have an incentive to get off the government dole and begin working again. Elliot Williams Class of '96 Bombs, boxes and Bosnians away! Airdrop adds excitement to lifestyles, pork to diets T he sky is falling! The sky is falling! And in Bosnia-Herze- govina. Chicken Little is about to become a McNugget. SPLAT! Just like the Bugs Bunny cartoons of our youth, very large things are falling from the sky. Unlike the anvils and pianos of Bugs and Wile E. Coyote, these airborne bundles bear food and medical supplies for a war-torn land. Unfortunately, it's the wrong food. Leave it to the chefs at Chez Meal- Ready-to-Eat in the Pentagon to cook up a variety of goodies for our starv ing Muslim friends. Unfortunately the starving Muslims in Bosnia don't eat pork, which is one of the gastro- nomical delights that we have dropped on their houses. Of course this is nothing new for the United States; we have a long-standing tradition of dropping the wrong things from airplanes. In Vietnam, we dropped urine snif fers. I kid you not. I learned about it in my history semi nar on the 1960s. One of the neat things about being a lib eral arts major is that one has the opportunity to take cool classes. Anyway, we were discussing the vast array of American techno-toys that we dumped on Vietnam during the war, and one of those cool techno-toys was the handy- dandy urine sniffer. The urine sniffer operated under the assumption that a Vietcong soldier would probably need to go to the bath room while he was busy being a "bad guy." American strategists concluded that the VC soldier, being male and thus being convenient, would proceed to relieve himself on a trail or tree. Knowing where the enemy was through this urine trail, American artillery could bomb him back to the stone age. Did it work? Put it this way, water buffalo and peasants also pee on trails. My professor explained that the Vietnamese had a lot of barbecued buffalo. And now in Bosnia, the Muslims have a lot of barbecued pork. A lot of good that will do them. Of course, the hu manitarian aid packages of doom won't do any Bosnians much good if they miss their targets. After all, the United States is dropping these 1,550 pound boxes from 10,000 feet and has yet to confirm that the people who need these goodies - but can't eat these goodies - are even getting these goodies, i.e. the Serbians really dig U.S. pork. Serious concern arises over the serious size of these care packages. Imagine dropping a Geo from 10,000 feet. Odds are that these packages could do some serious dam age to the Bosnians themselves. American insurance mor tality rates estimate that three deaths per year are caused by falling Coke machines. Now imagine a veritable hail storm of Coke machines falling from the sky. Think of the carnage! And that's another thing: Would Bosnian home- owners insurance cover 1,550 pound boxes falling through the living room? Of course the United States thought ahead in this case and dumped one million pamphlets from airplanes on Sunday. The pamphlets issued the following warnings: "DANGER! FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY, LET THE HU MANITARIAN AID LAND BEFORE YOU APPROACH," and, "AMERICAN PLANES WILL PROVIDE HUMANI TARIAN AID TO ALL PEOPLE BY AIR. DO NOT SHOOT AT AMERICAN AIRPLANES. THE FOOD AND MEDI CINE ARE INTENDED FOR ALL." Though some may think that littering thousands of dead trees across a foreign country is environmentally unsound, dumping pamphlets has been a staple of American foreign policy. We used this method successfully in Vietnam when we warned peasants to steer clear of falling urine sniffers. Certainly the Clinton administration is using recycled paper products in these pamphlet dumps. Otherwise, everyone from Earth First to Aggies Against Bonfire would be protesting the senseless dumping of dead trees over Bosnia. Come to think of it, dead trees would probably be better than what we are dumping right now. Bosnian Mus lims could at least burn the trees - in order to roast their pork. Perhaps we should just drop urine sniffers on Bosnia. Then they could eat roast buffalo after we bomb them into the stone age.. . which just might start to happen if we don't watch out. Feducia is a senior English and history major. STACY FEDUCIA Opinion Editor Aggie Cinema prices too high for students We have a question for Aggie Cine ma: What are the objectives of their or ganization? If this is a student organiza tion, we expect it to provide services for the students at reasonable rats. Why do they charge $2.50 per student for movies? If all the cinemas around town charge $3.00 for new releases during the matinee showing, why should Aggie Cinema charge so much? Ironically, when they showed the "Last of the Mo hicans" and "Under Siege," Schulmann was screening the same films for $1. Please explain why it is necessary to charge $2.50. How Mooi Lau Graduate Student Accompanied by four signatures Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views of the ecttonal board. They do not necessarily reflect the opnons of other Battalon staff members, the Texas A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or staff Columns, guest columns, and Mail Call items express the opinions of the authors. The Battalion encourages letters to the editor and wil print as many as space alows n the Mail Cal section. Letters must be 300 words or less and indude the author s name, class, and phone number. Due to space restrictions, guest columns w# not be accepted unless the author contacts the opinion poge for prior approval before submitting columns We reserve the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy Letters should be addressed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald /Mail stop 1111 Texas A&M University Colege Station. TX 77843 When is too close too much? I k Regarding the standoff between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, the media has been criticized for its constant presence at the Mount Carmel compound. Some argue that the media is simply in the way, and that their presence is hindering efforts to end the standoff. In addition, critics say that the large presence of the media may hdve added to some of the deaths and injuries suffered on both sides during the shootout. However, media proponents believe that the public has a right to know about the events as they unfold. Question: How close do you think the media should be allowed to cover a crisis such as this? If Address letters to The Battalion - Back Talk, MS 1111, College Station TX, 77843, or bring letters by the office in 013 Reed McDonald. Please include name, ID number, telephone number and classification on the letter. We ask that you limit the length to 150 words.