Global

Everywhere we turn, new technologies for communication have us surrounded. The online sensations of just a few years ago are now ancient cyber-history, and the process continues to accelerate. The computer on most desks seemed to be cutting-edge when it arrived -- but now is already on the verge of obsolescence.

When we decide that yesterday's breakthrough purchase has become today's outmoded albatross, we may gripe about the hassle and expense of upgrading to new systems. Sometimes, no doubt, we buy more for reasons of consumer vanity than practical functionality.

But the common determination to keep up with the (Digital) Joneses isn't mere status-seeking. As the Internet continues to gain momentum, we're apt to believe -- for good reasons -- that we must not be left behind. In professional and financial realms, those who lack access to the latest in techno-communication are likely to find themselves at a distinct disadvantage.

"I've named four Supreme Court judges in the state of Texas, and I would ask the people to check out their qualifications, their deliberations. ... I've had a record of appointing judges in the state of Texas. That's what a governor gets to do. A governor gets to name Supreme Court judges." -- George W. Bush, Oct. 4

AUSTIN, Texas -- Ooops. Uh, actually, we rather notoriously elect judges in Texas, including those on the state Supreme Court. However, due to a series of early retirements, Bush has been called upon to name four justices, so one can see how he might be confused about it.

Since he brought it up, it's worth taking a look at Bush's picks for the state Supremes, since they do tell us rather a lot about his taste in judges.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Excuse me, but something seems to be slipping into obscurity with no media comment whatever, and as Arthur Miller wrote in "Death of a Salesman," "Attention must be paid."

The event was a modest announcement by the Office of the Special Prosecutor that there is insufficient evidence to bring a charge of wrongdoing against Bill or Hillary Clinton in the Whitewater investigation.

That story lasted exactly one news cycle, and then we dropped it like a hot rock. If that's a one-cycle story, just what the HELL has been going on for the last six years? Six years, $52 million, and there is no there there? There never was, and I'm sorry to play I-told-you-so, but I told you so. So what was this madness about?

David Maraniss of The Washington Post has this nice riff that he does about Bill Clinton as the Republicans' Moby Dick. They've had their harpoons in this white whale since '92, but they can't kill him -- he keeps dragging them to their deaths in his wake.

FREEP HEROES

The 30 Free Press “Libby” Award winners

It takes a radical activist community to raise a newspaper. While most of its underground predecessors are moldering in the grave, the Freep proudly lives on. Much to the paper’s credit, it was recently barred from raising funds at Ohio State University. And these 30 people are key reasons why we’re still around to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. A list of winners is on page 9.

THE FREE PRESS SALUTES

Dan Cahill and Ida Strong

Two key members of the Prisoners Advocacy Network (PAN) are the main organizers of the “Critical Resistance: Stop the Prison Industrial Complex” Statehouse rally on September 28, 2000. Their hard work has brought together a large coalition of activist organizations from Art and Revolution to the Cincinnati Zapatista Coalition and has raised essential issues concerning human rights and social justice. Slated to speak are Staughton Lynd, Pam Africa on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal and there’s a statement of support from Leonard Peltier.

Ohio Green Party

This year’s presidential election is between two men; George Bush and Al Gore. Anyone harboring illusions that any one else, other than these two gentlemen actually has a chance needs to retake high school American history.

Fringe candidate Ralph Nader would have you believe that he has a chance and deserves a place at the table, let alone a second look. There are two main reasons why voting for Mr. Nader is not only futile but counterproductive to the environmental movement. Allow me to explain.

A vote for Mr. Nader is a vote for President Bush/Speaker DeLay

Texas Governor George Bush lacks substantive policy experience both in the domestic and international arenas. He is anti-gay, anti-environment, anti-labor, and most of all beholden to the far right of Bob Jones. How can he be up in the polls? He has two things in his favor this year: money and Ralph Nader. Mr. Bush’s fundraising extravagance is legendary. Let’s talk about Mr. Nader.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- Watching George W. Bush's post-debate strategy emerge was interesting. Watching it flower into perfection within days was fascinating.

To go back a mere week, Veep Al Gore won the debate on points, but the immediate spin was: Would it do him any good because he was having such an Eddie Haskell night? The Bush camp complained of Gore's sighing; the media promptly did out-takes of all sighs by Gore, strung them together and -- voila -- he appears as a petulant poseur rather than master of fact and issue.

(I mean, what are we to make of Bush's suggestion that we encourage energy exploration in Mexico so we won't be dependent on foreign oil? Bush actually said he had discussed this with Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox. Shouldn't someone cable Fox and tell him we're not considering annexation?)

OK, the media -- world champions of getting-off-the-point -- now have us worrying about Gore's sighing, but the Bush camp is down to no issues. Nothing works for them, and their only option is to drive up Gore's negatives.

You may have read in the Columbus Alive that the Free Press/Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism (CICJ) was the only nonprofit member of Greater Columbus Community Shares excluded from this year’s charitable giving campaign at the Ohio State University. Twenty-one organizations were let in – only one left out.

And let me stress, left. OSU administrators insist that the Freep’s editorial content has nothing to do with their bizarre and misinformed decision. After all, they were totally unaware that the Freep’s summer issue cover story attacked the OSU administration for its handling of the spring CWA strike and its indefensible invitation to U.S. Representative J.C. Watts to serve a commencement speaker.

OSU Human Resource administrator Ned Cullom told the Alive that he and Human Resource Director S. John Taflan excluded the CICJ because the organization doesn’t “directly address the health and human services in Central Ohio.” I guess we’re not the League of Women Voters or the American Civil Liberties Union that clearly serve such a function, according to Cullom and Taflan. Both groups were let in the OSU campaign.

In 1993, Sarah and Elizabeth Delany became overnight celebrities with the publication of their memoir, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years, written in collaboration with New York Times reporter Amy Hill Hearth. It became a national bestseller, was adapted into a highly successful stage play and TV movie, and led to two more books by the Delanys.

“Sweet Sadie” and “Queen Bess,” as they called one other, have since passed on. But picking up the torch are two black men, averaging 99 years of age, who have both published their memoirs this year, with the assistance of younger writers.

George Dawson, born in 1898, is the principal author of Life Is So Good (Random House, 260 pages, hardcover, $23), co-written with Richard Glaubman. The book was done as an oral history, and deals primarily with life in the South.

You remember Steven Kanner, a local activist who refused dominant values, whether by riding the bus instead of a car, refusing to wear leather tennis shoes, or dreaming of working in a cooperative tofu factory. One of my best memories is going with him to Broad and High, ironing board in hand to use as a literature table. We talked with both the rich and the poor about Single Payer Health Care reform and asked them to sign our petition. Few were as faithful as he was—participating in a peace march, hosting a dinner for Simply Living friends, or supporting the Green Education Fund.

What a surprise to get his letter from Iowa City stating that he had been elected to the City Council. Steven Kanner? you ask. Yes. The only person on the council who lists his address as a basement apartment and who deliberately renewed his membership with the Democratic Socialists of America as well as the Green and Labor Parties before he was elected.

The Emperor’s New Clothes is one of Hans Christian Andersen’s well-known fairly tales. In the story, weavers are making an invisible cloth for the Emperor’s “new clothes”. The weavers claimed that anyone who couldn’t see the beautiful patterns in the cloth was either a fool or an inept government employee. Because none of the characters in the story wanted to appear to be a simpleton, the Emperor ended up wearing his “new clothes” in a parade. Only after a mere child said, “The Emperor has no clothes.” was the hoax revealed. Andersen’s fairy tale on ignoring the obvious was first told in the mid 1800’s.

A close look at the news reports covering the 1993 tragic death of over 80 people at the Mount Carmel Center near Waco, Texas, reveals that a willingness to ignore the obvious is still with us. The obvious question is: “Who is going to be tried for involuntary manslaughter?” The basic facts of the Waco tragedy are not contested.

Fact No. 1