THE
Wednesday, June 5, 2002
battaliI
by R.DeLuna
Beernuts byRobApplmg
DUEY....
SIT.,..
ouev... SET ME A BEER OUT OF THE
FRIDGE... THE BOTTLE OPENER IS IN
THE SECOND DRAWER FROM
>THE STOVE AND THE KOOZIES
ARE ABOVE THE SINK.
>VEU. AT LEAST
HE’S FINALLY
SETTING GOALS
FOR HIMSELF!
Bush to veto anti-terrorism bill
WASHINGTON (AP) —
The Bush administration threat
ened Tuesday to veto the
Senate’s $31.4 billion anti-ter
rorism bill, setting up an elec
tion-year duel over a package
that the White House says has
grown too costly.
The bill’s mostly Democratic
defenders pressed ahead any
way, and fired back at
Republicans who promised to
offer amendments cutting the
bill’s price tag.
“It’s easy to sit around and
carp and complain and criti
cize,” said Senate
Appropriations Committee
Chairman Robert Byrd, D-
W.Va., the bill’s chief architect.
“But there are some around here
who feel they have to do some
things to help this country.”
Even as the two sides posi
tioned for what looked like a
lengthy battle, the Senate voted
91 -4 to drop a ban on new emer
gency loans for airlines until Oct.
1. The loans are part of a bailout
program for air earners enacted
just after the Sept. 1 1 attacks.
The vote was a major boon to
financially ailing US Airways,
which says it needs a $1 billion
loan this summer.
By erasing the $393 million
the loan restrictions were sup
posed to save, the overall bill’s
cost grew to $31.4 billion.
The House anti-terror bill
would block new loans until
October, but aides predict the
eventual House-Senate compro
mise will omit the restrictions.
President Bush asked
Congress in March for $27.1 bil
lion in anti-terror spending for
the rest of the federal fiscal year,
which ends Sept. 30. Like the
Senate measure, his plan is dom
inated by funds for defense,
intelligence, aviation safety,
local law enforcement and aid to
help New York rebuild from the
attacks. Most Senate add-ons are
for domestic security programs.
In a statement delivered to
senators, the White House budg
et office said senior advisers
would urge Bush to veto the
It’s easy to sit
around and carp
and complain and
criticize.
— Robert Byrd
Senate Appropriations
Committee chairman
measure as written by the
Democrat-dominated Senate.
“The Senate bill includes
scores of unneeded items that
total billions of dollars — all
classified as an ‘emergency,’”
the statement said. “The bill
adds unrequested funds for
numerous programs and proj
ects throughout nearly all of the
federal agencies.”
Projects the administration
found objectionable include
$100 million to secure Russian
nuclear weapons and $315 mil
lion for Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention con
struction — which the White
Pay disparity remain
between men, womeit t
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Women in the
United States earned only 73 cents for every dol
lar men were paid in 1999, though the gap nar
rowed during the 1990s, according to census fig
ures released Tuesday.
Women gained roughly 7 cents on the dollar
over the 10-year period, according to the Census
Bureau’s long form.
The figure does not necessarily mean that
women are being paid less than men for doing the
same job. Instead, the census looked at earnings in
1999 for full-time workers in all industries and
found that the national median income for men is
$35,922 and $26,292 for women.
“1 would say we have a long way to go toward
closing the gap,” said Marianne Hill, an economist
for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning.
Experts said the main reasons for the wage gap
are that women often take time off to have chil
dren and lose experience and pay because of it;
that women often choose lower-paying profes
sions, such as teaching and social work; and that
women are discriminated against when it comes
to promotions and raises.
“I don't see it becoming equal until women
become much more equal in terms of who’s tak
ing care of the kids at home and who’s doing
house work,” Hill said.
Karen Nussbaum, assistant to the presid
of AFL-CIO in Washington, said a recent std
by her group attributed about half of the wJ
gap to discrimination. One of the biggest
sons for the narrowing of the gap was that mi
high-paying manufacturing jobs held by
have gone overseas, she said.
Colin Bennett, a labor economist for
Employment Policy Foundation, agreed
women face discrimination but said the itapi
more complicated than bias. "A lot of demogra
ic factors are involved.” he said.
The disparity ranged from women earmnd
cents on the dollar in Wyoming, where thetrJ
tionally male mining and oil industries dta
nate, to 90 cents on the dollar in Washinp
D.C., where women are more likely than inert
hold high-paying government jobs.
Bennett projected that the wage gap
close within 30 years as women continue enten
high-paying jobs and child care becomes
evenly split between parents. 1^^
Nussbaum disagreed, pointing to a recentm|
gressional study that said women professw
and managers had lost ground in the past)
years.
“This is not steady progress in one directic?
she said.
Bush admits intelligence failurt
iunior ri
Wayers I
Is
House said could not possibly
be spent this year.
The statement also said only
half the $40 billion Congress
and Bush provided for anti-ter
ror programs last fall has been
spent — further reducing the
need for additional spending.
And it said the administration
will oppose amendments boost
ing the bill’s price tag. Such
amendments, totaling billions of
dollars, have been written by
senators of both parties.
The GOP-led House approved
a $29 billion version last month.
White House officials have
called it acceptable because it
includes a conditional $1.8 bil
lion extra for the Pentagon that
the administration says it would
not expect to spend.
After delivering the statement
to Republican senators. White
House budget director Mitchell
Daniels said the Senate should
pass a measure “at a level which
really we believe meets the
nation’s needs, but is really all the
nation can afford.”
Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska,
top Republican on the
Appropriations panel and co
author of the bill, called the veto
threat “just a tactic of the
administration.”
“We’ll work this out” by the
time a compromise House-
Senate bill is finished, he said.
Despite pleas by Byrd,
Stevens and others to hasten
work on the bill. Sens. Phil
Gramm, R-Texas, and John
McCain, R-Ariz., said they
planned several amendments
that would cut the measure’s
spending.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Bush said Tuesday the
CIA and FBI failed to communi
cate adequately before Sept. 1 1.
Congress began extraordinary
closed-door hearings into intel
ligence lapses with bipartisan
promises the inquiry will search
for facts, not scapegoats.
“We’re up and running with
momentum,” said Rep. Porter
Goss, R-Fla., chainnan of the
House Intelligence Committee,
who will run the first week of
the joint Senate-House intelli
gence committee hearings.
Assault
Continued from page 1
Even with education and
efforts to promote awareness of
date rape and sexual assault
involving a stranger, some sexu
al assaults cannot be prevented.
Lemay emphasized that if
someone is sexually assaulted, it
is never the victim’s fault.
“We will be a fact-driven
inquiry,” Goss said as he stood
next to Sen. Bob Graham, the
Florida Democrat who will run
the hearing on alternate weeks,
under the rules the joint commit
tee adopted during its first meet
ing Tuesday.
“We will not be driven by
outside pressures,” Goss said.
Hours before the committee
met for the first time behind
closed doors. Bush, in his most
explicit criticism yet of FBI
and CIA actions before the
attacks, said: “I think it’s clear
“Don’t fault the victim,”
Lemay said. “It can happen to
anyone, anywhere, at anytime
|even with education].”
The UPD has not had any
reported sexual assaults involv
ing strangers on campus since
1994. On campus, only one in
four of all sexual assaults are
reported. Lemay said most sex
ual assaults involving strangers
are reported, where as many
conim.i
that they weren t
eating properly. 0
But. speaking at the Na™|-£ ,s
Security Agency, Bush also*L# v
there is no evidence that iftambir
officials could have averteflftuth w
attacks, even if agencies wankee
worked together better. Bans ha
The House-Senate inic nothing
gence committee will exairB ver sir
just that point, and others, ;|| ^88
seeks to uncover what c!» av [ ' e a 1
might have pointed to theft*. 1 " ' n 8
plane attacks on the World
to chan
lowing
coming
ot'long
sexual assaults with acqtrhasbee
tances, including date rape,g
unreported to University «
cials or the police.
Lemay reminds students
education remains the ke)|
prevention.
“Be aware of your si
ings, the people around >
attention, and trust your in
Lemay said. “Know and
stand that it can happen.”
Center and Pentagon, and l|
to prevent lapses in the
m
NEWS IN BRIEF
Candidates deliver negative
blows to Senate opponents
DALLAS (AP) — Negative blows wielded
recently by Republican Senate candidate John
Cornyn's campaign represent "whafs wrong
with politics" and "it's the reason people get
turned off by the electoral process," Democratic
candidate Ron Kirk said Tuesday evening, vow
ing to avoid nastiness in his campaign.
Cornyn spokesman Dave Beckwith said com
ments from the Cornyn camp were only attempts
to raise issues that are important to Texans.
"Since when is it negative campaigning to talk
about differences in issues," Beckwith said. "Mr.
Kirk apparently finds it inconvenient to talk
about issues and thinks if he ignores them,
they'll go away."
Kirk's comments in an interview with
Associated Press came after several commecj
recently from Cornyn's camp, which ti
accused Kirk of being AWOL after the April 9 f
mary runoff and of adopting a "me too" style!
campaigning with issues indistinguishable fro
his opponent's.
Cornyn said last week that Kirk only tak
stands on issues that Cornyn addressed first.
After each of the Cornyn campaign's coil
ments, Kirk's campaign refused to fire back, ar
Kirk said Tuesday he'll have it no other way.
"I think their behavior and their rhetoric an
their conduct speaks for itself and it represeiu
whafs wrong with politics and it represents^
status quo," Kirk said in a two-hour intervie
"It's like somebody just sent them a page out'
the Republican manual: how to run and den
nize your opponent.
IMMANUEL & HELEN OLSHAN
TEXAS
MUSIC
FESTIVAL
JUNE
JUNE 24, 2002
MOORES SCHOOL
OF MUSIC
UNIVERSITY OF
HOUSTON
TICKETS!
845-1234
Student $5 - Regular $10
Around the World
in 30 Days!
Monday, June 10, 7:30pm
Chamber Concert
Bush Conference Center
An evening of chamber music by Chinese com
posers, includes Ding Shan-De's Piano Trio,
Ching Yi's lovely Xian Shi, The Light of The Angel
for Solo Piano by Hua Yang, Bright Sheng's Stream
Flow for Solo Violin, and Ma Szu Ts'ung's Piano
Quintet. Performers include the Western Arts
Trio.
THE BATTALI0
Editor in Chief
Richard Bray, Opinion Editor
Jennifer Lozano, Opinion Assistant
Lindsey Fielder, Design Director
Ruben DeLuna, Graphics Editor
Sayeda Ismail, Radio Producer
Douglas Fuentes,
Guy Rogers, Managing/Photo Editor
True Brown, Executive/Sports Editor
Christina Hoffiman, News Editor
Melissa Sullivan, News Assistant
Lycia Shrum, Aggielife Editor
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