The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, June 10, 2003, Image 5

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    .me 10, 2003
kets:
Gundy
be new
1 coach
Opinion
The Battalion
Page 5 • Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Lackluster Legislature
an A. Lozano
SOCIATED PRESS
DN — Former Ne»
ks coach Jeff Vai
the Houston Rockets
wants to be their nett
and is trying to work
act to seal the deal,
teral manager Carroll
j.
jumping up and
A son said, describing
after getting the tele-
from Van Gundy,
thought I was crazy,
ing at a happy guy."
sets
at a
ve-
rent
/an
>rd-
ton
>ta-
VAN GUNDY
o n
rclose possible te®
itract but said tk
e been in touch will
and have agreed to
of compensation for
who remains under
i New York throngti
;r Knicks coach, wh
uptiy last season and
reason as a game ana-
had also been con-
coaching vacancy at
ton Wizards.
been very success-
msive philosophy is
'e decided he was Ik
til is team,” Dawsoi
: very excited abonl
we got a very god
k it is going tobei
;e.”
talks were expected
ete within the neii
wson said. j
dy, who spent t»e
ton last week tour®
:s and the city, and
5 A coach Mike
nerged as the M
ig the team’s seared
cessor to Rudf
ich stepped down in
years as head coach
lir of NBA titles,
,ets also met willt
1 Larry Brown, Last
as introduced as tie
Cavaliers’ coach
tme the Detroit
i.
s career with the
Gundy compiled a
•d and led the team
MBA Finals, where
rt to San Antonio,
e replaced Don
; Knicks coach in
son, Van Gundy
i assistant in Ne«
^9-1990. He was on
ff in the 1994 NBA
ic Rockets beat the
/en games to win
two consecutive
nships.
IN BRIEF
ey claims
lup with 3-0
Anaheim
RFORD, N.J. (AP)-
) feels right at home
With important issues left unaddressed, Perry
O n June 2, the 140-day odyssey of the 78th Texas
Legislature came to an end. The session was
full of drama, with hot-button issues such as
tuition deregulation, lawsuit reform and the shadow
cast by the state budget shortfall. But all of this was
overshadowed by the dramatic flight of House
Democrats over redistricting. Still, this year’s
Legislature did pass significant legislation, some good and some bad.
As far as House Speaker Tom Craddick is concerned, “We accom
plished everything we wanted to,” according to the June 3 issue of
The Bryan-College Station Eagle. But if that is the case, legislators
must not have wanted to deal with other important issues, such as
public school financing. The troubling status quo necessitates the
calling of a special session to try to solve the remaining problems.
The state needs meaningful solutions for issues that were
unsolved at the end of the past session. Biggest among these is the
problem of school funding. During the last session, legislation was
passed that provided for the phasing out of the “Robin Hood” plan
for school funding. The “Robin Hood” plan involved taking tax rev
enues and redistributing them from richer districts to poorer ones.
Although Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst proposed an alternative plan
based on a new tax structure, it was not successfully passed in the
regular session.
Another bill that failed to pass would have required high school
students in the top 10 percent of their classes who wished to go to a
state university to have taken a minimum curriculum recommended
by the state.
A bill designed to make the state government more efficient also
failed, although Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, told The Eagle that
all of the important money-saving features of the bill had been
added to other bills. Last but not least among important bills killed
was the congressional redistricting measure. All of these issues are
key to the state, its economy and its smooth operation, yet none
were adequately addressed.
The current state of affairs demands the rapid convening of a spe
cial session primarily concerned with the problem of public school
funding, and secondly, devoted to solving the other issues. But
almost two weeks after the end of the regular session, Gov. Rick
Perry has not set a date for a special session or sessions for these
neglected issues.
In a column from The Fort Worth Star Telegram, Republican legis
lators were quoted by The Houston Chronicle as saying that the gov
ernor is considering a special session. But The Chronicle reported that
it seems the session will focus on redistricting and government reform
legislation, not school funding. School
funding would be addressed at a later
time, perhaps next fall.
Some sources point to the fact that
Perry is planning a special session, just
maybe not about school finance.
According to The Chronicle, the gover
nor’s office has “advised (lawmakers) against making
vacation plans.” While this would seem to be a positive
sign, it may hurt the state if Perry takes too long to call
a special session or lets redistricting drive the agenda if
he does call it.
The biggest reason Perry might call a special ses
sion is because there is also a pending lawsuit against
the state filed by several school districts. According to
The Chronicle, the suit, which had been dismissed by a
lower court, was sent back by the Texas Supreme Court
for further consideration. This should scare legislators
because a judge originally created the “Robin Hood”
plan through a court case. If legislators wait too long in
deciding what to do, the state court system might
decide things for them again.
Although redistricting, reforms to the state govern
ment and the top 10 percent plan are compelling dis
tractions, Perry must exercise more leadership than he
did during the regular session and push to solve the
school funding problem first.
An additional benefit of doing that would be that
most ideas for reform of school funding include some
kind of redesign of the state tax structure, like Lt. Gov.
Dewhurst’s plan, which involved raising the sales tax
and lowering state property tax caps. This would help
local governments that are already suffering from loss
of funds due to the state’s budget shortfall.
The past session was a productive and dramatic one
for the state government, but it failed to solve some of
the state’s problems. Now is the time for Perry to step
up and lead the legislature in fixing what it left behind,
especially school funding, before others do it for them
in ways they may not like.
David Shoemaker is a junior
management major.
Graphic by Ivan Flores.
DAVID SHOEMAKER
Bush administration hasn’t found WMD
CIA’s findings were ambiguous; materials not necessarily used for weapons
L ately, much ado
has been made
about two trailers
found in northern Iraq.
In a recently released
report, available at
www.cia.gov, the CIA
declared them to be “mobile biologi
cal-weapon production plants.” The
dossier of materials itself is consid
ered so important that the Bush
administration made it available to
the American public.
The account observes that the
trailers contain a water-chiller, an air
compressor, water-supply tanks, a
fermenter and a device for collecting
exhaust gases. So attractive was the
combination of all these components
in one mobile place, that the CIA
labeled it an “ingeniously simple,
self-contained bioprocessing sys
tem.” The trailers are similar to
descriptions of mobile bioweapon-
producing labs given by various
Iraqi exiles. Thus, they closely
resemble the drawings of such labs,
which were based on these descrip
tions, shown by Secretary of State
Colin Powell to the U.N. Security
Council in his famous presentation
months ago.
The highlight of the
document is the state
ment that claims the
trailers to be “the
strongest evidence to
date that Iraq was hid
ing a biological-warfare program.”
The “evidence,” however, is not
strong and is far from conclusive.
The case against the trucks, as pre
sented by the CIA’s report, relies on
eliminating all other possible uses
for the trailers, a poor way to sub
stantiate any claim.
There is still no evidence that the
labs were used recently, or, in fact,
ever at all. The report admits that
U.S. officials have found no traces
of any bio-weapon agents inside the
trailers. The document states, “We
suspect that the Iraqis thoroughly
decontaminated the vehicle to
remove evidence.” This is possible,
though unlikely. If the Iraqis were
that worried about the trailers and
had enough time to painstakingly do
away with every trace of biological
agents in them, then they would
have destroyed the trucks as well.
There is no purpose in removing
every grain of explosive from a
bomb, but leaving the bombshell
intact.
The file also mentions that each
trailer would have to be supplement
ed by one or two more trailers, each
of a different type, to produce bio
logical weapons. These trailers
would have to be specifically made
to process the bacteria. Thus, they
would need to be equipped with
mixing tanks, centrifuges and spray
dryers; all items not present in the
two trailers that were discovered.
The CIA does recognize that these
other trailers still need to be found.
Yet, the possibility that these miss
ing trucks do not exist is not even
considered.
Iraqi officials maintain that the
trailers were used to produce hydro
gen for artillery weather balloons,
which are used by an army to meas
ure the accuracy of artillery fire. The
report acknowledges that some of
the trailer equipment, namely the
gas collection system and the pres
ence of caustic substances, are con
sistent with hydrogen production.
Yet, the report refutes this scenario
because such a use for the labs
would be inefficient — the trailers
found have a larger capacity than
systems normally used to produce
hydrogen gas.
In similar fashion, the CIA docu-
rrtent rejects the chance that the
trailers could have been used to
manufacture biopesticides.
Biological weapon and biopesticide
production requires the same tech
niques and equipment. However,
this explanation is invalidated
because the size of the equipment is
unnecessary for biopesticide pro
duction and because the manufac
ture of biopesticides would be more
economically achieved at a bigger,
fixed facility.
Just because the trailers operate
less efficiently when used for these
alternate purposes does not mean
they were not employed for these
purposes. Besides, the trailers are
by no means 100 percent efficient
when used to produce biological
agents.
A recent story in The New York
Times said the mobile labs were
“poorly designed.” This is because
Iraqi lab workers would find it very
difficult to place the necessary raw
materials into the system, and
would then have more trouble when
they would attempt to remove the
amplified batch of the biological
agent. If it is difficult to put a mate
rial into the contraption and just as
hard to get it out, it does not matter
how well the rest of system works.
This is why the logical method
used by the agency to validate the
trailers as mobile bio-labs is incor
rect — a case against the function
of the trailers as biological weapon
producers can be made as well. Of
qourse, given the desperation of the
current administration to find
weapons of mass destruction, maybe
this report, especially its “strongest
evidence to date” statement, is
understandable. It may be the
strongest evidence to date, but not
because the evidence is itself sub
stantial. Rather, in the context in
which the trailers are seen, that is, a
lack of any evidence at all, the
“mobile bio-weapon producing
labs’” scenario looks much better
than warranted.
Midhat Farooqi is a senior
genetics major.
MIDHAT FAROOQI
riding the greatest
tage in NHL playoffs
Dal from one of the
ne 7 stars ever,
hty Ducks’ surreal
n the Stanley Cup
y Monday night,
who had never
playoff game until
in Game 4, scored
I set up Jeff Friesen
vo. Friesen scored
series, all at home,
pt all four games at
the second period
— in the first finals
I only the third in
e team won every
rs rallied from 2-0
to force a Game 7
three games in
e home-ice edge
irtant to a Stanley
; Devils outscored
it home .
MAIL CALL
Moral crusader Bill Bennett's
gambling not a case of hypocrisy
In response to George Deutsch's June 9 column:
I'm sorry. I didn't realize that Jon Stewart is a reputable
source of political commentary. Letterman is much more
insightful, don't you think? With two quotes from Stewart
and a handful of incorrect facts, it appears George
Deutsch may have done all of his research for his June 9
article via late night television.
Here are just a few items among many in need of cor
rection:
Bennett never lied about his gambling habits, nor has
he tried to hide it as Mr. Deutsch alleges. When asked
about it, Bennett said, "I play fairly high stakes. But I don't
bet the milk money. I donft put my family at risk. And I
don't owe anybody anything." Is it not true that a multi
millionaire can afford to lose more in Las Vegas than say,
a college student?
Secondly, Empower America does not oppose legalized
gambling. The only references to gambling found on the
organization's Web site are four gambling-related facts
included in a list of pop culture statistics that also contain
information about movies and television. Does this mean
Bennett "opposes" those, too?
Finally, a comparison to Clinton is unjustified. Not only
has Bennett not committed perjury, but sex and gambling
are two different things. As was recently pointed out by
columnist Jonah Goldberg, local communities don't post
billboards shouting "Live Your Dreams: Boink the Interns!"
Bill Bennett has certainly gambled too much, and I'm
not claiming anything otherwise. But to say this is a case
of hypocrisy is grossly exaggerated. Nothing in this whole
mess of accusations makes Bennett's stance on moral
issues any less accurate. Unlike the political satire seen
on The Daily Show, Mr. Deutsch's effort to discredit Bill
Bennett is far from funny.
Walt Curtis
Class of 2001