Archives


Power Struggle

December 19, 2000
Interactive Week
In late September, while on the stump in Michigan, George W. Bush outlined his energy plan for America. More domestic oil drilling was needed, he told the crowd, because the country needs more natural gas. We also need more renewable energy and more electric power because, he said, "today the equipment needed to power the Internet consumes 8 percent of all the electricity produced in the United States."

Trial and Titillation

July 14, 2000
Austin Chronicle
The themes for the government attorneys are suicide, arson, sex, and guns. Lawyers for the Branch Davidians are talking about women, children, missing evidence, and fire trucks.

Killing the Messenger: Who's Really to Blame for the Botched Raid in Waco?

June 23, 2000
Austin Chronicle
By Robert Bryce, Joe Ellis and Jim Moore
The blame game started just after the last body bag was zipped up. Four agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and six Branch Davidians were dead. The emergency room at Providence Hospital in Waco was awash in the blood of injured ATF agents. David Koresh, still holed up in his compound, was bleeding from gunshot wounds in his right wrist and left hip.

Why Does the Left Ignore Waco?

June 19, 2000
Salon
What does Mumia Abu-Jamal have that David Koresh doesn't? From Ed Asner to Alice Walker, liberals have flocked to defend Mumia -- convicted in 1982 of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner -- criticizing the way police and prosecutors handled his case and demanding a new trial. Luminaries of the left marched, chanted and purchased full-page ads in the New York Times to appeal to state and federal authorities to provide for Mumia, who has been on Pennsylvania's death row for 18 years.

The Can't-Miss Kid

May 28, 1999
Austin Chronicle
Face it, George W. Bush is going to be our next president. And you don't have to be a political genius or a mathematician to understand why. Bush was just re-elected in a landslide. As a presidential candidate, he wins all 32 of Texas' electoral college votes without breaking a sweat.

Stealing Home

May 9, 1997
Texas Observer
(RB Note: This was the first story to show how George W. Bush and his cronies used the power of eminent domain to enrich themselves. It was also the first to forecast just how lucrative the deal would be for Bush when he sold his interest in the Texas Rangers.)
George W. Bush loves baseball. And why not? After all, baseball has been very good to the governor.

Merchant of Death

June 1996
Texas Monthly
When Robert L. Waltrip's time comes, he will likely get the same treatment accorded any of his customers at Houston's Service Corporation International (SCI). Two men will pick him up, place him in a black plastic bag, lift him onto a stretcher, load him into a dark-colored vehicle, and drive him to a low-slung metal building at Thirty-Fourth Street and Ella Road -- what SCI insiders call the prep center.

U.S. Cancels Indonesian Mine's Insurance

November 2, 1995
The New York Times
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation has canceled $100 million in political risk insurance for a huge gold mining project in Indonesia that is operated by Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold Inc.

Mexico Purchases US Oil and Gas As Domestic Energy Demand

November 30, 1993
Christian Science Monitor
Long before ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), United States energy producers were finding a fertile market in Mexico. Surging population growth, coupled with expanding industrialization, have increased Mexico's energy appetite by nearly 300 percent over the past 20 years. To meet the demand, Mexico has been importing increasing amounts of natural gas and liquid petroleum products from US oil and gas producers.

Carbon tax would help Texas

October 20, 1992
The Dallas Morning News
Vice presidential candidate Al Gore has recommended a tax on carbon-based fuels as a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, cut air pollution and save energy. Because of his support for the tax, he is under attack. Rich Bond, chairman of the Republican National Committee, recently called Mr. Gore an "international environmental extremist.'

Oil Wastes Taint Water Supply

April 18, 1991
Christian Science Monitor
WHEN a Texaco pipeline broke and spilled a million gallons of crude oil, ruining six acres of his grassland and contaminating his groundwater, Rex Pigmon got mad. When the company offered the west Texas rancher $1,200 for the damage, he got a lawyer.