R E S T A U R A N T P O L L B A L L O T P . 4 6 - The Austin Chronicle

news20 ReeferHeadlines› City Council takes up several contentious issuestoday (Thursday, April 8): requiring disclaimers atso-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” allowingfor the reactivation of dormant building permits,and a $280,00 contract (with optionalextensions) for a North Carolina group to leadminority recruitment outreach at the Austin FireDepartment. See “City Hall Hustle,” p.14.› City staffers have whittled down an ambitious“bicycle boulevard” plan slated for NuecesStreet, while crafting a new version that woulddivert more bike traffic to Rio Grande. See“Bump in the Road for Bike Boulevard,” p.18.› Texans laid claim to $23 millionin federal stimulus fundsWednesday morning as partof the Texas Trade UpAppliance Rebate Program.Those lucky enough toreserve their rebates beforethe funds ran out – a littleafter noon – will be swappingout their old, energy-hoggingappliances for new, efficientmodels later this month. For everyone else,there’s a waiting list: www.texaspowerfulsmart.org.› Electoral lethargy: By the second day of early votingin the April 13 primary run-offs, TravisCounty reported that only 2,108 Democrats and2,487 Republicans – a grand total of 0.46% ofeligible voters – had cast ballots. Early votingends Friday.› New hope for the Cactus Cafe? The TexasUnion said Wednesday it is considering threeoptions for the historic venue: Leave it alone,hand it to a third party, or enter a partnershipdeal with KUT Radio. See “Off the Record,”Music, p.53, for more.› Last week Jay Wyatt,the feisty president ofCapital Metro’semployee union, wasreturned to his job atthe transportationauthority. Wyatt was dismissedmore than sixmonths ago amid nebuloussexual harassmentcharges, but observerswondered whetherWyatt’s well-publicized clashes with Cap Metromanagement were behind his firing.› The Office of National Drug Control Policy hasnamed Austin a “high-intensity drug traffickingarea” – a staging area for Mexican drug cartels.This and other fearful news was deliveredMonday to the city’s Public SafetyCommission. See “Reefer Madness,” p.20.› Advocacy Inc. of Austin, a nonprofit watchdogfor the rights of people with disabilities, has filedcomplaints with the U.S. Justice Departmentagainst South by Southwest Inc. and PanasonicCorp. of North America, claiming some of theFilm and Interactive events were not accessibleto people in wheelchairs.› The National Transportation Safety Board hasreleased its initial report on Joe Stack’s Feb. 18kamikaze-style attack on the IRS building inNorth Austin. The report now goes to the FBI,which is leading the investigation. Rep. PeteHoekstra, R-Mich., of the House PermanentSelect Committee on Intelligence, has called forthe incident to be classified as domestic terrorism.JOHN ANDERSIONMadness 20 On the Campaign Trail 23 The Hightower Report24 Poor Prospects at AISDTravis County Commissioner Ron Davis, third from right,leads Wednesday’s groundbreaking for a 52-mile water supply pipelinethat will serve eastern Travis County, which includes Davis’ Precinct 1, and partsof neighboring counties. The Cross County Water Supply Corp. will provide the water,which is pumped from the Simsboro Aquifer in Burleson County. The pipeline is needed, Davis says,to meet water demands as Austin grows eastward, although some environmentalists aren’t keen onthe county’s participation in a project that involves tapping into a distant groundwater source.Taking FireDid you happen to vote for dictatorial rule?BY MICHAEL KINGThe story goes that in 1787, when asked if theConstitutional Convention had produced “a republicor a monarchy,” Ben Franklin replied, “A republic– if you can keep it.” This anecdote is usually citedby conservatives to support the argument that theU.S. system of government is not a “democracy.”But in light of recent history and the growth of theU.S. empire, the tale might as readily recallFranklin’s warning that hanging on to representativegovernment is no sure thing– and that increasingly, U.S. presidentshave taken on the trappings, the claims,and the powers of elected monarchs.That’s one way of considering thisweek’s University of Texas symposium,Executive Power, co-sponsored by the LBJLibrary and the UT School of Law, andorganized by law professor Sanford Levinson. Itbegins tonight (Thursday) with a keynote address byHarvard professor and attorney Jack Goldsmith,who will speak at the LBJ Auditorium at 6pm on TheSecond Terror Presidency. Friday and Saturday panelswill feature various political theorists debatingthe limits, legal and political, on the powers of thepresidency, closing with a panel on Levinson’s paper(with Jack Balkin of Yale) on Designing apointaustinConstitutional Dictatorship. The Levin son/Balkinargument asks whether – as presidents have increasinglyassumed “emergency powers” over the last 60years, acting virtually as dictators in regard to foreignpolicy and war-making – there is a way to constitutionallycircumscribe those powers so that theydo not overwhelm any attempt at legal limitation.Levinson told me he had noticed severalrecent books on the expansion of executivepower and thought it would be useful toget the authors talking together aboutthe history and the potential consequences.Each panel will offer a briefpresentation and critique of a work,and then a broader discussion.“I think it will be an opportunity foranybody in the audience to hear a series ofstate-of-the-art conversations about a variety ofproblems presented by the combination of the modernpresidency as an institution and the particularkinds of dilemmas we find ourselves in,” Levinsonsaid, “whether you call it the war on terror or economicsorts of emergencies or natural disasters. Whatis it we look to presidents to do; are we confident thatthey can do it; what are the implications of theirCONTINUED ON P.15QUOTEof theWEEKRICHARD WHITTAKER“If Ken Lay were alivetoday, he’d say, ‘My God,what have they done?’”– Texas Association ofBus i ness President BillHammond, criticizing the newhealth care reform law whilecuriously invoking the nameof the Enron founder whodied before he was sentencedto prison forcorporate fraud12 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E APRIL 9, 2010 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m