The Morning After: The Effect of the Network Call for Bush

By the weekend following the election of 2000, two possible frames were available to the press covering developments in Florida. In the first, Gore had won the popular vote and the outcome in the electoral college was uncertain. In the second, Bush was ahead in the vote in the state that would determine the results in the electoral college and, as such, the presumed victor until Gore proved otherwise. Elite discourse as revealed in Sunday morning talk shows eventually settled into the second frame, but not until the certification of the Florida vote by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Elite discourse was not, however, beneficial to Bush in the early weeks of the protest phase of the election.     

Defending the Semantic Interpretation: A Reply to Ferraro

In a recent article in this journal, Giuseppe Ferraro mounted a sustained attack on the semantic interpretation of the Madhyamaka doctrine of emptiness, an interpretation that has been championed by the authors. The present paper is their reply to that attack.     

Transnational Organized Crime: A European Perspective

One of the most controversial issues the United States has to deal with since the beginning of the 2003 war in Iraq is the Mujahedeen a-Khalk (MEK). For more than two decades the organization had been the major armed opposition to the Iranian government and, at the same time, had been a close ally to Saddam Hussein's regime. This study examines the history of the MEK, the debate within the Bush administration on what to do with the MEK fighters, and the solutions proposed by the Iraqi Governing Council, the Iranian government, and the United States. The analysis suggests that operationally and ideologically the MEK has reached a dead end.‐     

Forensic Discrimination of Dyed Hair Color: II. Multivariate Statistical Analysis*,†

Abstract: This research is intended to assess the ability of UV–visible microspectrophotometry to successfully discriminate the color of dyed hair. Fifty‐five red hair dyes were analyzed and evaluated using multivariate statistical techniques including agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC), principal component analysis (PCA), and discriminant analysis (DA). The spectra were grouped into three classes, which were visually consistent with different shades of red. A two‐dimensional PCA observations plot was constructed, describing 78.6% of the overall variance. The wavelength regions associated with the absorbance of hair and dye were highly correlated. Principal components were selected to represent 95% of the overall variance for analysis with DA. A classification accuracy of 89% was observed for the comprehensive dye set, while external validation using 20 of the dyes resulted in a prediction accuracy of 75%. Significant color loss from successive washing of hair samples was estimated to occur within 3 weeks of dye application.     

Criminality Among Rural Stimulant Users in the United States

Despite the increase in media attention on "meth cooking" in rural areas of the United States, little is known about rural stimulant use, particularly the criminality associated with stimulant use. Data were collected from community stimulant users in rural Ohio, Arkansas, and Kentucky (N=709). Findings from three logistic regression models indicate that younger stimulant users (x =32.55, SD = 10.35), those with more convictions, and those who used crack frequently were significantly more likely to have been arrested for committing a substance-related crime, a property crime, or another crime in the 6-months before entering the study. Implications include the need for longitudinal studies to further understand rural stimulant use as well as increasing community and corrections-based drug abuse prevention and treatment interventions for stimulant users who live in rural areas.     

Can Civil Society Organizations Solve the Crisis of Partisan Representation in Latin America?

This article takes up the question of whether civil society organizations (CSOs) can and do act as mechanisms of representation in times of party crisis. It looks at recent representation practices in Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil, three countries where political parties have experienced sharp crises after several decades of mixed reviews for their party systems. At such moments, any replacement of parties by CSOs should be especially apparent. This study concludes that the degree of crisis determines the extent that CSOs' representative functions replace partisan representation, at least in the short term. Where systems show signs of re‐equilibration, CSOs offer alternative mechanisms through which citizens can influence political outcomes without seeking to replace parties. Where crisis is profound, CSOs claim some of the basic party functions but do not necessarily solve the problems of partisan representation.