Hightower Lowdown

Who was one of the biggest winners on November 2? Some bloke named Jerry Jones. He ran a $5 million ad blitz in Arlington, Texas, to win a vote that will put $325 million of government money into his own pocket. Jerry's the billionaire owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and the vote was to get taxpayers to build a luxury sports palace for his private business.

He's just one of the billionaire sports owners across America who profess to love private enterprise but shamelessly wallow in corporate welfare. Local politicians, eager to please these moneyed power brokers, back their billionaire boondoggles even as basic needs in their cities go begging.

Take New York City, where both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki have rushed to the aid of Robert Wood Johnson IV, known to his pals and political cronies as Woody. Woody is the heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, a backer of various far-right-wing causes, one of the top Republican donors in the countryand owner of the New York Jets.

It's in this latter capacity that Woody, a fervent free enterpriser, wants a government handout. He says his team must have a new stadium to play inand both Bloomberg and Pataki are offering $600 million from New York taxpayers to build Woody a for-profit playground on a stretch of Manhattan's most valuable land.

These are the same two political "leaders" who keep shortchanging New York's school kids, claiming there's just no money to meet their needs. Most New York city schools have an asphalt playground no larger than Woody's garage, classrooms are dangerously dilapidated, parents and teachers have to chip in to buy most basic classroom supplies, and some school bathrooms don't even have toilet paper!