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July 17, 2000

Editorials
Justice, but too slow
No one, not even Ward Connerly, should have been surprised that the Florida Supreme Court barred Connerly's anti-affirmative action initiatives from this state's ballot. The longer the court sat on the decision, the more obvious it became what the outcome would be. To have approved them with only weeks remaining to complete the signature-gathering process would have been unseemly. Connerly himself had already called off the effort for this year's election.

'Cookie' monster
The federal government too often is tempted to use computer technology to snoop on citizens. Officials should be reminded of the constitutional limits on such activity.

Moving toward cooperation
The two main chambers of commerce in the Tampa Bay area are showing signs of understanding those three unifying words -- Tampa Bay area. Leaders of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce have agreed to meet quarterly to work on common goals. While it has long made sense to promote the attributes of the entire bay area when recruiting new businesses, chamber members are beginning to see the benefit of working together to solve problems as well.

Letters
Don't ignore the threat of growing corporate power
Amid all the talk about international terrorism and a hugely expensive missile shield for possible protection against rogue nation attacks, we hear little about a far greater potential threat to our national security: concentrations of economic power created by recent mega-corporate international mergers.  

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.