When Porter Goss became head of the Central Intelligence Agency a year ago, lawmakers expected him reshape an agency rocked by scandals and crucial intelligence failures. But they called him before the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday to “explain why the CIA is bleeding talent at a time of war, and to answer charges that the agency is adrift,” The Washington Post reported. According to the Post: “At least a dozen senior officials — several of whom were promoted under Goss — have resigned, retired early or requested reassignment. The directorate’s second-in-command walked out of Langley last month and then told senators in a closed-door hearing that he had lost confidence in Goss’s leadership.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Mitch Albom has a good column on Wednesday’s Eagle Opinion pages about the loss of private, contemplative time to iPods, BlackBerries and other gadgets that keep us working overtime and one step removed from genuine human interaction.
Here’s another interesting article at CNN.com on how wireless technology is changing people’s habits, and the paradoxical effects of new technology. As one tech experts argues, “The overall upside is that we can maintain a rich social and cultural life while dashing from pillar to post. The overall downside is that our spiritual development — which requires empty time, contemplation — is suffering enormously.”
Your thoughts? Is new technology improving the quality of your life? Or just making it more cluttered?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The Eagle’s editorial today concerns the crusade against X-rated businesses by Mayor Carlos Mayans and the Operation SouthWind group. The city’s new effort to zone these businesses out of certain high-profile neighborhoods makes sense, though even that invites litigation. And if the shops are selling stuff that crosses the legal line or skirting city code, further action is needed. But as our editorial notes, Wichita is a home to these 15 businesses because there’s a local market for what they sell, and “opponents of adult businesses would do well to focus their activism less on curbing the supply side and more on curbing the demand.” What do you think?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
With special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation winding down, Washington media and political blogs are buzzing about the possibility of indictments soon being handed down to senior White House officials in the Valerie Plame affair.
The Washington Post reports that Fitzgerald’s investigation has focused of late on Vice President Dick Cheney and his office’s power struggle with the CIA over prewar intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
It’s a reminder of what, at bottom, the Plame case is about — the battle over WMD intelligence and whether it justified the Iraq war. Did the White House go too far in manipulating intelligence or pushing back against those who dissented from the official administration position? We might soon know.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
It didn’t seem as if Darfur could get any worse, but it may have. The Janjaweed militias that have burned villiages in western Sudan and killed and raped thousands are turning their guns on the Sudanese government that armed them, The New York Times reported. One observer said: “Darfur is no longer under control. . . . There’s this armed group and that armed group. It’s getting more complicated by the day.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The White House is trying harder this week to get Americans to focus on Harriet Miers’ accomplishments. Doing so isn’t being made easier by quotes such as these by Josh Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, in The New York Times: “You know, she’s a very gracious and funny person. I was racking my brain trying to think of something specific.” He added, “She is a very good bowler. For someone her size, she actually gets a lot of action out of the pins.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition meets today and Thursday in Hutchinson for its annual summit. Director Lisa Davis told The Eagle that this year’s meeting of homeless service providers will focus on the problems of rural homeless, who often go “under the radar” because of a lack of homeless shelters and other services in rural areas.
Davis estimates that on any given night, some 3,700 rural Kansans are homeless — often because of domestic violence and other social problems.
It was encouraging to hear her say that the group hopes to work closely with the new state Interagency Council on Homelessness to find solutions that stress permanent housing, not temporary shelter.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
