|
December 10, 2001
Mental illness deserves parity in health care plans
Our leaders in Washington are debating issues of enormous importance to our security and well-being. Yet while many of these issues have made front-page news, a little-noticed provision in a spending bill for the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services could help millions of Americans suffering from mental illness.
Ashcroft's contempt
Attorney General John Ashcroft's performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week was stunning for its arrogance and its contempt for the democratic process. The hearing was convened by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee chairman, to question the Justice Department's tactics in investigating terrorism. The session was a legitimate and responsible exercise of congressional oversight authority. But Ashcroft, in dismissive fashion, suggested that any inquiry into his controversial antiterrorism policies was an act of disloyalty.
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.
|
