St. Petersburg Times Online: Opinion

Bill Maxwell
Ain't no room for liberals in Texas
We're confident that there are well over fifty bona fide liberals in Texas. -- From a recent Texas Observer editorial

Editorial
Buby for Pinellas commissioner
The Pinellas County Commission District 6 race is a repeat of the contest in 2000. John Morroni beat Dave Buby for the newly created seat two years ago, but Buby is back for a rematch. Of the four incumbent commissioners whose terms are up this year, only Morroni drew a credible challenger.

Editorial
Mayor's airport offer
The St. Petersburg mayor's proposal for Albert Whitted Airport offers the best compromise and gives residents a say over their land.

Letters
Clearwater meets challenges of high-rise fires
Re: Unprepared, editorial, Oct. 18.

Columns today
Mary Jo Melone
Recovery from illness' highs, lows -- and jail
The smell of disinfectant and the constant dull clang of the barred doors that lead from corridor to corridor of the Pinellas County Jail are a creepy, inescapable combination. Kathleen Mahoney has been here since the spring.

Tampa Uncuffed
Bigdoggie feels big bite from the law
Detectives call www.bigdoggie.net a front for prostitution. Defense attorneys say the online escort service qualifies as protected speech under the First Amendment.

Bill Maxwell
Ain't no room for liberals in Texas
We're confident that there are well over fifty bona fide liberals in Texas. -- From a recent Texas Observer editorial

John Romano
Supporting players come through
SAN FRANCISCO -- As strategies go, this one is pretty simple. As challenges go, it is not terribly subtle.

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.