The United Nations’ oil-for-food scandal extends far beyond the United Nations, according to the fifth and final report by an independent committee released Thursday. More than half of the 4,700 companies that were part of the program paid illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein totaling $1.8 billion. Still, former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, who headed the investigation, stressed that the private corruption shouldn’t draw attention away from the need for the United Nations to have much better management procedures and controls. “The central point, he said, “is that it all adds up to the same story. You need some pretty thoroughgoing reforms at the U.N.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Today’s pullout by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers was the right thing for the White House and the court. As Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., told NPR, her hill to confirmation was getting larger rather than smaller, and that disagreement with the Bush administration over the release of documents loomed large. The real problem with her nomination was not that she wasn’t conservative enough. It was her resume, which simply didn’t rise to the level necessary to entitle someone to sit on the highest court in the land. Miers’ confusing questionnaire answers didn’t help. At least nobody can say she was “borked.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
An exasperated Attorney General Phill Kline told The Eagle editorial board this week that people assume abortion is all he focuses on because “that’s all you guys want to talk about.” Yet his spokesman later said Kline was pleased with the article in the November issue of GQ magazine titled “This man will do anything to stop abortion,” which calls him the “most aggressive abortion litigator in the land” and the “future of the pro-life movement.” If Kline is trying to distance himself from abortion, he’s failing.
Some prime Kline quotes from the article:
“When we apply a utilitarian measure to human life — ‘Do I want to have this baby?’; ‘Can I afford to have this baby?’ — it permeates all our thinking to the point where it undermines our ability to protect the inherent rights of the most vulnerable people in society. The disabled and the elderly and so on. To me, this is a foundational political issue.”
“In Genesis 2:19, after God has created all that is beautiful and wondrous in the world, He turns to Adam and says, ‘You name it, all of it.’ Think of the power that imparts, the faith that expresses. God serving what He has created. Amazing.”
“I think abortion has created a deep and abiding national shame and hurt that cannot find healing. And shame is a terrible thing to feel. Quite honestly, I think this is why when abortion is condemned in the political realm, there is such aggressive anger in response.”
“The most frustrating part of my job is the cheapness of the public discourse when it comes to abortion, the way it drives the people who have public roles to extremes — the fear it creates that you can’t concede even an iota of reasonableness in any argument made by anyone on the other side. There’s no room for doubt. It’s all about who wins the argument, which is just moronic.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
At the tender age of 30, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., has more standing than anyone else in Congress to this recent claim: “This place is a much more sophisticated junior high school. There are the nice guys that everybody likes, the jocks, the geeks, the bullies — they’re all here.” This line of thought has had bloggers at RedState.org trying to liken lawmakers to their school counterparts (Tom DeLay as bully, Dennis Kucinich as band kid, Nancy Pelosi as hippie, etc.). Not hard to place “Todd the Bod” Tiahrt (actual nickname from his youth) among the jocks, but what of Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
White House staffers could probably use a laugh right now to distract them from all the serious talk of indictments and Harriet Miers. Maybe that’s why some of them are reading The Onion.
But this New York Times article makes me question White House spokesman Trent Duffy’s claim that the staffers “have a sense of humor, believe it or not.”
Apparently the White House took time to write a letter to The Onion, asking that it quit using the presidential seal with its parody of the president’s weekly radio address.
Scott Dikkers, editor in chief of the satirical paper, wrote in response, “I’m surprised the president deems it wise to spend taxpayer money for his lawyer to write letters to The Onion.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
The four new site maps for the downtown arena give citizens an even better sense of the strengths and weaknesses of each location option. Sedgwick County leaders say there is no clear front-runner yet. So if you have a favorite site, let the county know — either by posting comments on the county’s online forum (www.sedgwickcounty.org) or by attending an open house from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the atrium of the Bank of America building, 100 N. Main.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
As a Tuesday meeting of the Fabrique Neighborhood Association indicated, city officials will have to make the case for moving the Patrol East police substation to Central and Greenwich. Residents near the current Edgemoor substation don’t want it to move, and some near the proposed new station don’t want it in their backyard (as if some kind of development isn’t inevitable there). As it is, the Edgemoor location puts officers near some transitional neighborhoods that are coping with renewed gang activity. Can officers still be as effective from several miles away? City Hall needs to ensure the answer is “yes” or risk leaving Patrol East’s current neighbors feeling abandoned.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
