Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had earlier tried to portray himself as being open-minded and nonideological about President Bush’s Supreme Court nominations. Forget that. His announced opposition to John Roberts smacks of partisan pandering. After all, as Washington Post columnist David Broder noted, Roberts is “ridiculously well equipped to lead the third branch of government.” In contrast, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ranking minority member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced Wednesday that he would vote for Roberts.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
President Bush spoke last week at the United Nations World Summit about the need to end deep poverty in the world, but for the fourth year in a row, Bush this week blocked U.S. funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which addresses maternal health care and family planning for the world’s most impoverished women.
The reason? Abortion politics — some Bush supporters claim the fund has been used for coercive abortions in China, although the administration’s own 2002 investigation found no evidence to support those claims.
Poverty goes on, as usual, and so does politics. . . .
Posted by Randy Scholfield
I was troubled by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June that the government could use eminent domain powers to acquire private property for an economic development purpose. But I was sympathetic to the court’s concern that justices in Washington, D.C., aren’t in the best position to decide whether a local project serves a public purpose. So I’m uneasy that the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday to consider ways to limit eminent domain, such as by withholding federal money from local governments. A better approach — which the Supreme Court mentioned — is for state legislatures to establish restrictions on the use of eminent domain, an issue the Kansas Legislature is planning to address next session.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Maybe because we heard so many from him last year, each utterance by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., now seems like a waste of his breath and our time. Still, his post-hurricane blast at the White House Monday had some sharp jabs:
“Brownie is to Katrina what Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq, what George Tenet is to slam-dunk intelligence, what Paul Wolfowitz is to parades paved with flowers in Baghdad, what Dick Cheney is to visionary energy policy, what Donald Rumsfeld is to basic war planning, what Tom DeLay is to ethics and what George Bush is to ‘Mission Accomplished’ and ‘Wanted Dead or Alive.’ ” Hmm. Wonder whether an 8-month-old Kerry administration would have been any more prompt and efficient in responding.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
People are still trying to figure out what Standard & Poor’s School Evaluation Services meant last week when it identified 16 Kansas school districts as “highly resource-efficient,” as part of a study commissioned by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. One interesting observation by The Hutchinson News, though: Of the “Sweet 16” districts, seven have graduation rates lower than the state average; seven also have lower-than-average attendance rates. Turns out those factors weren’t part of the Standard & Poor’s study. But it’s fair to expect districts being held up as models to be getting students to class and graduation day.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Nonprofit circles worry about “compassion fatigue,” in which Americans tire of giving money to worthy causes. Thankfully, there hasn’t been much evidence of that lately. Americans gave more money in the first week after Katrina (an estimated $830.6 million) than they gave in the first two weeks following Sept. 11 and the Asian tsunami combined. And as of last week, the Katrina total had topped $923 million. But there is legitimate concern that this national giving might hurt support for local needs. That’s why it’s important that area residents also contribute to the United Way of the Plains and other charities. Katrina victims need help, but so do our neighbors.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
