Global

LOS ANGELES -- On the televised surface, the Democratic National Convention exuded plenty of sweetness and generosity. One speaker after another explained that America's working people have a wondrous friend in a party that is committed to fighting for their interests. It was great theater -- of the absurd.

Behind the carefully crafted media facade, however, advocates for big business had ample reason to celebrate. For them, the two-party system was functioning just fine. No need to worry about the two teams of horses in the presidential race when they're both running in the same general direction.

Past sources of irritation or challenge inside the Democratic Party were, so to speak, subdued. Jesse Jackson was often moving yet also restrained when he spoke to the convention on Tuesday evening. "Old-line liberals had their night," USA Today reported the next day, under a headline that used the derogatory term "old guard" to describe speakers strongly critical of corporate priorities.

A chasm has always separated Gore's professions from his performance. He denounces the rape of nature, yet has connived at the strip mining of Appalachia, and, indeed, of terrain abutting one of Tennessee's most popular state parks. He put himself forth as a proponent of ending the nuclear arms race, yet served as midwife for the MX missile. He offers himself as a civil libertarian, yet has been an accomplice in drives for censorship and savage assaults on the Bill of Rights. He and wife Tipper smoked marijuana, yet he now pushes for harsh sanctions against marijuana users. He denounces vouchers, yet sends his children to the private schools of the elite.

It's hard to find noble moments in Gore's political career. Such was not the case with his father. Albert Sr. lost his senate seat in 1970, in part because of his opposition to the Vietnam war. Al Jr. never forgot what he has perceived the lesson of that defeat to be. A visitor to Gore's office at the start of the 1980s urged him to "do the right thing" on an issue that spelled possible political trouble for the congressman. Gore pointed to a portrait of his father on the wall of his office.

AUSTIN, Texas -- I'm not a weapons expert, and you're not a weapons expert, so how are we supposed to know whether the National Missile Defense system is a good idea?

Even if you've read enough about it to be skeptical, there are real, actual experts claiming that it's a dandy notion. Generals at the Pentagon bent over double with brass want this thing. And many, many of the politicians of our nation agree that it will be a bonanza of contracts for defense plants in every congressional district.

So there it stands (well, actually, it doesn't -- it keeps blowing up): a monument to our nation's peculiar political and weapons procurement systems.

You may recall that the last time they tested it, the booster thing attached to the kill-thing that's supposed to fly off and hit the incoming missile failed to come apart from its other thingie, and went gerblob instead. (See? Anyone can discuss National Missile Defense.) That cost us $100 million.

And the time before that, it turned out that the Pentagon had cheated to make the missile-hitting missile look good.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Seems like half of Texas is busy manning the pumps on both sides of the state's reputation.

The Bushies keep trying to prevent the foreign press from portraying us as a place where retarded people are promiscuously offed and we let half our kids rot in poverty. (Actually, it's only one-fourth.) The rest of us keep wondering where this state we hear about from the Bushies is located, where we "lead the nation in education" (27th out of 44 states ranked by Rand).

The latest jaw-drop is the news that our very own governor -- George W. Bush -- is personally responsible for the law that entitles the top 10 percent of every high school class to a place in the state college or university systems.

Gee, and we thought his only contribution was not to veto that bill after a bunch of black and Hispanic legislators, infuriated by the Hopwood decision ending affirmative action, worked like dogs to get it passed. This system will increase minority enrollment at your state colleges, too, if you still have segregated high schools.

FREEP HEROES

The Striking CWA Workers and their Student Allies

The clash between the increasingly corporatized and Republican-dominated OSU administration and the underpaid Communication Workers of America OSU employees and their student allies demonstrated that there’s still some life in central Ohio’s labor movement. Local 4501 President Gary Josephson provided able leadership by building bridges not only to the students but to the greater community. Fittingly, the strike started on May Day, and we hope it is the first shot in the battle for living wages here in Columbus. The organization built from the coalition of CWA strikers and their campus supporters, the Columbus Network, offers the possibility of a real progressive alliance emerging in our city linking the increasingly active campus-based activists to city politics. Once again, we applaud the CWA workers for proving that there still is movement in the frequently dormant labor organizations of Franklin County.

THE FREE PRESS SALUTES

Yoshie Furuhashi

This letter was sent by death row inmate Johnny Byrd on Easter to Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church as a desperate plea to help save his life.

Seventeen and a half years ago I awoke to a horrible nightmare. At the young stage of my life – when others my age were dreaming of their futures, I was shouldered with the weight of the world. I became a socially accepted sacrifice. I am an expendable pawn in the furtherance of self-serving political, financial aspirations. I was sentenced to die for a murder I didn’t commit. I have maintained my innocence for all these years I have been held captive in the bowels of society’s murder machine. I have fallen short in the glory of God – but a killer I am not!!! In my battle to show my innocence, I was prematurely placed in the death house only feet away from the electric chair and came within minutes of being murdered by the state of Ohio. I have never been given the opportunity within this deteriorating justice system to be heard. Permitting the crimes that have been committed against me to be whitewashed. Now once again I am facing pending murder, and still I haven’t been heard.

cold black monolith
               reflecting the source
                from the east...
                 phallic monument
                  symbolic underwriter
                   as background static
                    emits from yet another
                     monument also reflected
                      this one from the west...

What’s behind the assault against affirmative action, race-based scholarships, educational loans and other programs designed to enhance opportunities and access for blacks, Latinos and other minorities in higher education? What’s at stake is the implicit “writing off” or elimination of millions of black, brown and poor young people from a college degree.

The vast majority of black and Hispanic students continue to function under a kind of educational apartheid, more than a generation after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The apartheid begins in the public schools, with the underfunding of urban education. Advanced placement (AP) and honors courses are widely available at private and suburban schools, but frequently unavailable in mostly black and brown public high schools. The so-called “racial achievement gap” in most standardized tests that determine admission to colleges is more than anything else a measurement of “unequal treatment.”

It's always dangerous when politicians claim to be doing God's will. So, as the novelty fades from Al Gore's selection of Joseph Lieberman, journalists should ask some probing questions about the ticket's conspicuous piety.

Over the years, Republican policymakers have been fond of saying that they rely on divine guidance. Cementing his alliance with fundamentalist Christian groups, President Reagan loved to perform at high-profile prayer breakfasts and the like. All too often, political leaders -- especially conservative ones -- have tried to blur the separation between church and state.

Now, the Gore-Lieberman campaign has launched itself with a very public display of devout posturing. For them, the Old Testament has become fine grist for the centrist mill. The New Democrats are morphing into New Theocrats.

At the formal announcement of his selection for the V.P. slot, Lieberman declared that Gore "has never, never wavered in his responsibilities as a father, as a husband and, yes, as a servant of God Almighty." The vice president stood a few feet away, beaming.

AUSTIN, Texas -- What with George W. Bush moralizing all over us from Philadelphia and Al Gore back in his Dudley Do-Right mode choosing the seriously righteous Joe Lieberman, looks like we're in for a season of moral one-upmanship and sanctimoniousness.

I'm sure that all this will improve our characters, but in the meantime, we need to solve a few problems -- like the energy mess.

The Republican answer to energy problems is always: "Drill more! Open up the Arctic wilderness! Let us drill on the beaches! Give the oil companies more tax breaks! Free Saddam Hussein!" and other useful slogans.

The D's mutter about ratcheting up the mileage requirements on cars (a move stalled in Congress by auto lobbyists for the past five years) and gigging the auto companies to produce less pollution.

The environmentalists urge us to invest in renewable energy sources and ditch our SUVs.

None of this helps either electricity bills or the price of gas right now, though you'll never hear the pols admit it.