January 6, 2001
Editorials
New leadership needed
Hillsborough County Chief Judge F. Dennis Alvarez has repeatedly put loyalty and self-rule above the proper functioning of the courts. He should be replaced.
Putting a damper on dissent
Irregularities and constitutional questions were the order of the day in the 2000 presidential election, and its sideshows were no different. The Republican National Convention in Philadelphia may seem like a millennium away, but the way the police handled protests surrounding the August event is still raising constitutional concerns.
End the ethnic profiling
It should go without saying that Gypsies or people who may look like Gypsies are not necessarily thieves, and it is unacceptable for police to suggest to citizens that they are, or to treat them as suspects outside specific investigations. The same goes for every other ethnic group.
Letters
Instant runoff should be used in our elections
The Florida Association of Supervisors of Elections wishes to eliminate the two-primary system to save time and money. Elected officials from both of the major parties oppose such action partly because they have benefited from it and partly because they view it as thwarting the democratic process.
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.
|
