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August 17, 2000

Editorials
Nelson for tax collector
One question is dominating the race for Pinellas County Tax Collector. Does two-term incumbent W. Fred Petty have a good reason for breaking his promise not to seek a third term? But that discussion overlooks another important point: Challenger Diane Nelson is well prepared for the job and brimming with new ideas.

Editorial Notebook: Robert Friedman
Perversity of diversity
LOS ANGELES -- As usual, Jesse Jackson got off the best line, accusing the Republicans of having created the "illusion of inclusion" at their convention in Philadelphia earlier this month. But if Jackson had taken a closer look at the scene in and around the Staples Center this week, he might have accused his fellow Democrats of a perversity of diversity.

Letters
Joe Lieberman's convictions are already waning
Sen. Joe Lieberman has been called the conscience of the Senate. Like an Old Testament prophet, he has wandered among the unwashed and railed against conduct that violated his personal standards of right and wrong. But words, as they say, are cheap. Where is "Conscientious Joe" when the time comes to act on his convictions?  

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.