St. Petersburg Times Online: Opinion

Editorial: Their chosen leader
As long as Trent Lott remains his party's Senate leader, his racially offensive comments will reflect on all other elected Republicans in Washington.

Editorial: Residents' opinion on airport
Something important has changed in the debate over the future of Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Petersburg. The residents of the city are beginning to speak out, and they are not happy with the way the City Council has excluded them.

Editorial: Backward choice in Hawkes
No other governor since Claude R. Kirk Jr., more than 30 years ago, has had or even sought the opportunity that Jeb Bush now possesses to manipulate Florida's courts. The Legislature has allowed him to name all the members of the judicial nominating commissions, a power previously shared with the Florida Bar and with the commissions themselves. Evidence is now in on what a mistake that was. Exhibit A: the appointment this week of Paul Hawkes to the 1st District Court of Appeal.

Letters: Calls for war are overshadowing 'light for peace'
The Shining a light for peace headline above the photo of the national Christmas tree (Dec. 6) is enough to make one gag. The same George W. Bush who presided over the "Pageant of Peace" is planning for a war against Iraq.

Columns today
Jan Glidewell: Paying the price of practical purchasing
Sometimes movies that you might find otherwise unremarkable burn at least one unforgettable image into your mind.

Eric Deggans: A fan-friendly 'Nemesis'
Trekkies will find enough good things to recommend the latest Star Trek movie -- and enough clunkers to hope this isn't the last in the big-screen series.

Howard Troxler: Four in 10 speak with conviction: No war
About 55 percent of Americans support a ground invasion of Iraq, according to a current poll. Only 39 percent oppose one.

Ernest Hooper: An ancient battle and wandering reporters
I can't claim to be a big Discovery Channel fan. But the chance for a college professor to reveal his research on the cable network has to be tantamount to a coach being allowed to showcase his team on ESPN.

Robert Trigaux: Graying tycoons get some satisfaction -- for $10-million
There are birthdays, and there are megabirthdays.

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.