Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 23, 1999 Page: 2 of 18
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PAGE 2 A Thursday, September 23, 1999
1
Port Aransas Sout h Jetty
Murray and Mary Judson
Publishers
Mary Judson
Editor
Phone: (361) 749-5131 FAX: (361) 749-5137
Opinion
No money? Just
borrow time
1 his congress may ru* he the brightest
bunch we’ve ever had running the country ,
it may not be the rm>si honest or courageous,
but it is certainly among the most creatixe.
Faced with the formidable task of balanc-
ing the budget, giving more money to the
military and not cut-
ting back on popu-
lar pri»grams, it has
come up with a stun-
ningly inxentix e so-
lution - the 13-
month year.
Sen. Arlen
Spector (R Pa ),
chairman of the Sen-
ate Appropriations
Committee, has sug-
gested that the bud- Donald Kaul
get fiscal vear be _ . .. .. _ .
i I nbura* Media Services
given the extra
month to circum-
vent the spending limits it has set for itself.
This is the same Congress, remember, that
is berating President Clinton for refusing to
OK a $792 billion rich people’s tax cut, to be
paid tor out of the coming budget surplus.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again • w hat
surplus?
The “surplus” for next year was supposed
to have been $14 billion. Congress has al-
ready spent $28 billion of that w ith “emer-
gency” spending bills • you know, unexpected
expenses like the 2000 census, which came
around the corner without warning.
The surplus for the next fiscal year is
already gone, so the geniuses in Congress
want to borrow a month from next year so
that they can slide some of this year’s ex-
penses under next year’s spending caps.
They could raise taxes, of course, but they
don’t want to do that. They want to cut taxes.
They could also cut defense spending, but
they don’t want to do that either. They want
to raise the military budget by $17 billion.
They’d like to cut social programs, but
they’ve cut them so much already there’s
nothing significant left to cut. (We now
spend more money on the military than we
do on everything else, minus Social Security
and medicare.)
So there’s nothing left to do but cix>k the
books or borrow from the Social Security
fund, something Congress has sworn off, like
a recovering alcoholic his gin.
This is not the first time congress has
sneaked one year’s expenditures into the
next - they “borrowed” $1.9 billion in 1996
and $ 11.6 billion this year - but we’re starting
to talk about real money, they figured they’ll
need $20 billion to make the books balance
next year.
The theory behind this is that someday
there will be a real budget surplus big enough
not only to finance current expenses, but pay
off the previous year’s borrowing. It’s a good
theory and it might happen, but only if the
economy continues its unprecedented boom.
This is not a good bet. The economy is a lot
like the rest of life • stuff happens.
You might think that the Republicans,
given the trouble they’re having balancing
the budget, might give up on their idea for a
tax cut. Silly you.
As a matter of fact, the Republican major-
ity sent the tax-cut bill over to the president
this very week. The president, on his way
back from New Zealand as the bill reached
his desk, will veto it faster than you can say
“dead on arrival.”
The president says he’s willing to negotiate
for a smaller tax cut. The Republicans say
they’re w illing to negotiate a bigger spending
cuts.
We’d be better off if they each stuck to
their guns. Then, if a surplus actually did
appear sometime in the future, it would
automatically go toward reducing the na-
tional debt, which would be gtxxl for all of us.
In the meantime, I fear our alcoholic
friends are eyeing the liquor cabinet and
dreaming of a before dinner martini. Maybe
two.
Don’t think that Congress d<x;s nothing
but fight phantom fights for partisan advan-
tage, however. Why, just this week the House
of Representatives passed a campaign fi-
nance bill that would waken the influence of
money politics. Fifty-four Republicans broke
with their party leadership to join with
Dermxrrats to pass the bill. It now awaits
Senate approval.
I have a feeling it’s going to wait a long
rime. The House did the same thing last year,
only to see a Republican filibuster in the
Senate kill it. It seems likely the same thing
will happen this year, even though the Senate
version has been weakened.
* This charade allows selected politicians,
DemcKrat and Republicans, to vote on the
side of virtue without going to the trouble of
Actually being virtuous. It’s an old Washing-
ton game and these guys are g<xxl at it.
Come think of it, maybe Congress really
doesn’t do anything but fight phantom fights
for partisan advantage.
The South Jetty (946:020) pays Periodi-
cals postage at Port Aransas, TX
ATTENTION POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to:
South Jetty, P.O. Box 1116
Port Aransas, TX 78373
OK, MAYBE
RELAXING THE
STANDARDS
WASN'T SUCH
A KEEN
IDEA.
7
Hurricanes old hat in Florida
Florida is hurricane ignorant. They let
them come ashore wherever they want to,
where there’re lush resorts or where there are
acres and acres of residences, or where the
rich orange corps are located. New York is
the big apple, Chicago is the Bread Basket of
the nation, Miami is known as Hurricane
Friendly.
1 don’t know why the news services and
television networks bother to cover Florida
hurricanes. Surely they’ve got enough film
footage of hurricane damage in Florida •
miles and miles of shots of buildings collaps-
ing into the sea, downed palm trees, traffic
lights swinging helplessly in the wind, vic-
tims paddling down their streets in boats,
piers being knocked
into scattered planks.
You can’t tell one
Florida hurricane from
another, so why bother
to shixjt new film?
But now Texas
knows how to have a
hurricane. All up and
down the coast they
were hatting down the
hatches just in case Bret
came a visiting. But hur-
ricane smart w e allowed
Bret to come ashore in Kennedy County.
Kennedy is so thinly populated they don’t
Cactus
Pryor
have a county clerk. Most of the residents
were gone, but some made it home soon
enough to get in on the event of their lives.
There was loss of life, 10 head of armadillos
and 15 head of jackrabbits. There ain’t noth-
ing to blow over in Kennedy County except
windmills, and they’re made for blowing.
One Kennedy county resident, when located
by a newspaper photographer, decked the
photographer. He thought his camera was a
gun. According to my geographic survey only
place more suitable for a hurricane to come
ashore would be Terlingua, Texas out in the
Big Bend.
Cactus Pryor can be heard twice daily on
KLBJ - AM in Austin.
Letters to the editor
lake care of beach
The beach. It is why 1 live here. It is why
most of our visitors come here. Some of our
visitors treat it as if it were a trash can! (Tony
Amos documents that much better than I
can. Although lie missed the mess at marker
four last week!!) I think it is time to make
them pay. These huge piles of litter take
hours to accumulate. They can be stopped!
A couple from Kentucky, who are now
property owners here, commenting on the
trash, told me that in their town, there is a
$2 50, fine and a night in jail for littering. Last
night I was told that littering the beach in
California carries a $2000 dollar fine.
There is little we can do about what washes
up from the Gulf but clean it up, but if we
pass a law and aggressively enforce it, we
should be able to afford funding of extra
police on bicycle patrol to help keep our
beach clean. We might even be able to pay
them enough that they can afford to live
here.
Gary Osborne
Port Aransas
Can't wait
We live 30 miles from Madison Wis., in
town similar to Port Aransas. I would trade
two w eeks of the Wisconsin State Journal for
a South Jetty any time. It makes us smile.
Can’t wait to return in December to Port
Aransas and Island R.ctrcat where ine crews
are the best.
Robert Hawk
Morrimac, W1
Fight littering!
The Corridor beautification would be a
g(xxl idea, if, after visitors get into town, the
town would reflect what they saw' entering it.
All they need to do is drive around town and
they will see how unkempt our town is. I
can’t believe our city fathers don’t see the
unkempt lots with weeds eight feet high and
grass knee high.
One more thing. Why do people get away
with having parties on the beach and leaving
the beach trashed. Don’t we have law en-
forcement?
On Saturday, Sept. 18, Sunday Sept. 19
and Monday Sept. 20 the remains of parties
__the night before lay wait-
i ing for the city crew to
pick it up. We have litter
laws in place. Why don’t
we use them? I never see
in the police blotter
where anyone was ar-
” rested for littering.
Maybe we need to give our city council a
push.
Bill Weber
Port Aransas
Common sense?
Re: the accident involving the boat trailer
that got rear-ended, though I don’t know the
specifics, and it appears that the fault was
with the driver who rear-ended them. Often
this is not the case!
I have seen many near misses here. Every
day I see boat trailers with boats so large you
can’t see the towing vehicle or its lights. This
would not be a problem if the trailers had
working lights on them as required by law.
Many don’t even have lights at all!
Several times I would have called to report
this, but there was no license plate to be seen,
nor could the towing vehicle’s tags he read.
With the increased in traffic on this island,
this creates a dangerous situation.
Several months ago I saw an 18 wheeler
take the shoulder as one of our local towing
services turned left off SH 361 pulling a
travel trailer. With no lights to signal his
intentions, the truck eased over to the right
as if moving over to let the semi pass, then
proceeded to turn left. The semi driver,
assuming he was being allowed to pass,, ran
on the shoulder to avoid a wreck.
The attitude is since they are just right here
on the island, they don’t need lights or
licenses.
This goes for those who ignore the turning
lane and turn left from the right lane, or who
use the turning lane to pass.
• As for the P&Z and CZ-1 did the city’s
attorney look at this? This has been tried in
lawsuits resulting. In most cases the commu-
nities lost with large settlements being paid to
affected property owners.
• The unique signs of Port Aransas re-
cently featured in the South Jetty would all
be illegal if P&Z’s proposal was applied to the
rest of the town. Is this what we want?
Discrimination is just that, whether applied
to signs, businesses, sex or race!
• As you drive into town on SH 361, you
see unmowed areas of right-of-way. The city
might consider purchasing a mower that can
mow these ditches instead of leaving the
bulrushes to tower and look bad. Picking up
trash before mowing would be an excellent
idea and would take less time to clean up.
1 think it is a shame that the nightmare of
a few may be imposed on the whole town.
There is no Visions Port Aransas in CZ-l’s
proposal. Common sense should prevail and
with the support of the real people of Port
Aransas, it will. Speak up now!
Pappy Greene
Port Aransas
No communication
The rescheduling of Thanksgiving holiday
break, due to Hurricane Bret, seems to have
a lack of communication, within.
As the notice was read last week, in the
South Jetty, we were shocked, to say the
least! We had been informed otherwise.
The second day of classes being resumed,
after the interruption, i specifically inquired
as to when those days would need to be
compensated for.
1 was assured, that it would be “highly
unlikely”, the days would be taken from a
holiday break. And, to “expect” extra days at
the end of the school year for compensation.
Holiday travel plans were proceeded with.
Hearing of the holiday interruption causes
problems for many.
Non-refundable and/or non-changeable
airline tickets, rentals and accommodations
were made upon receipt of the school calen-
dar. I know that we are not singled out in this
respect!!
A classic example of “too many chiefs and
not enough Indians!!”
Julie Gall
Port Aransas
Have a little bit of Paradise
delivered to your home every week!
Subscribe
1 mil
Just call (361) 749-5131 and charge it!
Member:
South Texas Press Assentation
Texas Gulf Coast Press Association
Texas Press Association
National Newspaper Association
Dog's life looks
pretty appealing
“If you pick up a starving dog and make
him prosperous, he will not bite you. That'is
the principal difference between a dog an<f a
— Mark Twain ^
man.
Conservation with a fellow incarcerate.
Why he asked, do you dog lovers, man’s be?st
friend, brook
those who speak
so disparagingly
of the bea-dt
without a word
referring to their
I own kind? o.j
tidemarks tin™egn hec™;
C.M. Henkel Jr. marked. “Bo
you not referto
others as being in the dog house?” Then,
“What of those who complain of leadings
dog’s life. Reluctant to suggest the dictionary.
Interested, indeed curious I turned there. Afi
interesting read. At least in my Webster, nil)
“dog’s life”, hut definitions aplenty for “dtjfe
house”, including the one we hear daily with
reference to ourselves and others on occa-
sion. There not to mention the nautical
derivative. As well, the nautical dog watch,
now long forgotten. That brings to minjri
“doggy ”, the word in my schixil days for thqj
lads painstaking about the clothes they wo|
Meanwhile, as a dog lover I’ve no fancy .
doggy, the state of being a dogy, defined fyy
the dictionary as ostentatious, pretentious,
but not those with a fancy for the canine
species. Of course as children we first learned
to dog paddle. That of course in a dog’ a
past. Veterans of wars past remember th
dog tags.
SO MUCH SAID, 1 must confess to be-
longing to the ranks of dog lovers. Over t
years most among my canine loving frien
have possessed dogs of kennel club statui
There in truth, my present Mickie is the
exception. Suffice, it bothers him not a whij.
His lineage confuses most veterinarians. They
are divided between a mix of dachshund and
Doberman, too big for the one and small for
the other, hut in the end. likely the best of thj.-
lot. There, little doubt the vet might agre^.
Elsewhere today I have sons and grandsonk
who are proud of their pedigreed hunting
dogs. Only the gods should dare guess as t<*>
what Mickie might do in the field. Meanj-
while he seems mostly content as a housed^
if fed and given water on demand, then
released outside under that same condition!
Most time he likes the human animal anq
others of his genre. Altogether 1 dare fanc^
his being rather well content with his dog’s
life. There doing a bit better than some of
humankind, having at this point demolished
the second of his daily rations, he sleepd
content, I think at my feet. I would trustj
hope the majority among those who have*
stumbled through the forgoing are as content}
as 1 think Mickie. Surely he’d not grumble!
were I to offer him another food ration and!
even a dip of ice cream which, self disciplined}
as 1 fancy myself, I’ll not.
C.M. Henkel Jr. is a retired newspapen
publisher living in Corpus Christi.
Letters policy
• should be of general or
specific interest to the ‘
readership of the South
Jetty.
• shouid be limited to
about 300 words
• must contain valid
signatures
• must contain valid
mailing addresses
• must contain day and
evening telephone
numbers where the
writers may be reached.
Names of persons
writing letters will not be
withheld from
publication.
• UNSIGNED LETTERS
WILL NOT BE
PUBLISHED.
• Only one letter per
person will be published
during any 30 day period.
• Letters endorsing
political candidates are
political advertising.
• Letters of thanks
should be submitted
with payment to the
Classified Adv.
Department.
Mail letters to the editor
to:
Letters to the Editor
P.O. Box 1116
Port Aransas, TX 78373
t
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Judson, Mary. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 23, 1999, newspaper, September 23, 1999; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth663082/m1/2/?q=communication+theory: accessed July 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.