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January 2, 2002
Editorials
Trumped up terrorism numbers
Is a drunk, rowdy passenger on an airplane a terrorist? Is a man who pushes a judge? They are according to annual reports from the Department of Justice. An investigation by the Miami Herald found that the department routinely overstates the number of terrorist arrests and convictions it makes every year. It does so, apparently, to cook the numbers for Congress, as a way to justify its annual $22-billion budget of which counterterrorism is a part.
Promoting public service
Building on the new image government workers acquired after Sept. 11, a nonpartisan organization is striving to fill the many federal positions expected to open up in the next few years.
An act of willful ignorance
To the church in Alamogordo, N.M., that held a public burning of Harry Potter books, we offer this New Year's advice: Lighten up.
Letters
Floridians will pay less under McKay proposal
Re: Lobbyists plan war on tax idea, Dec. 28.
Perspective
Taking jobs, alienating customers
For weeks Americans have been told that the outsourcing of high-tech jobs is good for our economy. So said Greg Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in a recent report signed by President Bush. So, too, writes Thomas Friedman of the New York Times in articles praising the rise of call centers in India used for everything from making airline reservations and reading medical X-ray films to providing tech support for American computer firms.
Philip Gailey: Democrats fall off campaign finance reform wagon
Well, what do you know. Soft money is back, and it's making hypocrites of all those Democrats who fervently championed the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, not to mention those Republicans who objected to the law's restrictions on issue advocacy.
Bill Maxwell: Who is for the farm worker?
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is touting legislation to improve the lives of Florida's 300,000-plus farm workers, who endure institutional and systemic injustices each day in our fields and groves and their personal lives.
Robyn E. Blumner: For some defendants, an American gulag
In Bernard Malamud's masterpiece The Fixer, inmate Yakov Bok was subjected to psychological torture in a Soviet gulag through the humiliations of constant shackling and repeated strip searches.
© Copyright 2001 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
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