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January 25, 2001
. . . and an unpardonable pardon
"Chink, chink" is the sound of chains and pocket change. Funny coincidence, because multimillionaire fugitive from justice Marc Rich used one to get out of the other.
Proper clemencies
Bill Clinton commuted a handful of convictions for low-level drug offenders, which was better late than never, but his pardon for a commodities trader, who fled the country, was a betrayal of trust.
Forget private affairs and focus on real issues
I do try to be somewhat objective in reading letters to the editor, but the latest flurry of letters regarding Jesse Jackson's infidelity and its coverage by your newspaper really riled me. Particularly infuriating was a comment that the "liberal agenda fostered irresponsibility" (For liberals, morality doesn't matter, letter, Jan. 20).
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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