SPOTLIGHT
November 13, 2000

Personal......From the Editor

This week marks the final countdown to the Nov. 7 general election and in this issue our page 1 story focuses on the computers that will be tallying the votes.
Anyone who's been reading the SPOTLIGHT is acutely aware of the potential for the political and plutocratic powers to exploit the flaws in the machines that count our votes. But when we took a close oook at our computerized voting system, what we found even astounded us.
Nearly every expert we spoke to noted that tests performed on the precinct ballot counters showed vote counts were flawed. But what is worse is that not one of the manufacturers we contacted seemed to care much about it, one even went so far as to dismiss the potential for stealing votes-as if that has never happened before.
As we come upon this election, the outcome will almost surely be for the benefit of the Establishment. That's the bad news. But millions of Americans are waking up to the whole political process, realizing it is a sham and baniding together to make a concerted effort to expose it. The incredible growth of the new party movement is indicative of this. It is becoming a viable and significant threat to those in power and will only grow in the years to come. And that, as our editorial on page 1 points out, is certainly good news.
_______________________________________________________________
2nd Article

PAT PAINS PAPERBOY. Jim Stingl, a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, admitted in print on Oct, 18 his "surprise" that Pat Buchanan "received a warm, even rousing, reception at Marquette.

There were no protesters, not one sign, not one boo or hiss." Disappointed he snidely referred to Buchanan's wife Shelley, in a particularly nasty fashion. He also whined about Buchanan's views on homosexuals, sovereignty, immigration control, the New World Order, China trade etc. Stingl, whose reporting is a corduroy road of liberal cliches, was a source of light-hearted amusement for the Buchanan Brigade.
________________________________________________________________
SPEECH SQUELCHED
The Supreme Court, without comment or dissent, let stand lower court rulings that dismissed a lawsuit by a Florida high school student claiming his First Amendment free-speech rights had been violated by his suspension for displaying a small Confederate flag. Wayne Denno, a student at Pine Ridge High School in Florida's Volusia County, was suspended in 1995 for displaying a four inch Confederate flag to friends during the lunch period. Denno, who had an interest in Civil War history had participated in reenactments, was discussing his hobby in the school courtyard. An assistant principal ordered Denno to put away the flag, calling it "racist".Denno tried to explain it historical significance. He was suspended days and he sued. So far, federal courts have displayed this tortured reasoning on First Amendment issues: it is "free speech" to burn the American flag, but a crime to burn the UN flag. It is "censorship" for taxpayers to object to subsidizing unmarketable "art" showing a likeness of the Virgin Mary covered with elephant dung but a felony to display a likeness of Martin Luther King so decorated. Now it's a crime to display the Confederate flag.