President Bush rejected a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and called for resolve and patience in his speech this morning at the U.S. Naval Academy. It was a determined and hopeful message aimed at restoring public support for the war. And he outlined a few more specifics, though his definition of “complete success” is still unclear and seems to have been downgraded to a stable Iraq that isn’t a safe haven for terrorists. Many Americans likely will doubt Bush’s assessments of progress in training Iraqi troops, given that several Pentagon officials and independent analysts are much less optimistic. But it was good that Bush went beyond platitudes in making his case for what is at stake and why “staying the course” is important.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Here’s a smart Christmas gift idea that keeps on smarting: Zygote Games, a company based in Hadley, Mass., is offering Kansans a 20 percent discount on “Bone Wars: The Game of Ruthless Paleontology,” in which players compete in discovering and assembling dinosaur bone cards into completed skeletons.
Why a special deal for Kansans? According to the company’s Web site, “BONE WARS is all about how scientific theories get developed and tested. . . . Maybe our game can do what the schools in Kansas won’t.”
Thanks for thinking of us. Send a copy to the Kansas State Board of Education, please.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Polls show that most Americans think invading Iraq was a mistake. But was it the biggest war mistake in 2,014 years? That’s what military historian Martin van Creveld thinks, calling Iraq “the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., argued in a Wall Street Journal commentary that America can’t abandon Iraqis. Lieberman wrote: “It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al Qaeda foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern. The terrorists are intent on stopping this by instigating a civil war to produce the chaos that will allow Iraq to replace Afghanistan as the base for their fanatical war-making. We are fighting on the side of the 27 million because the outcome of this war is critically important to the security and freedom of America. If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East, which has long been a major American national and economic security priority.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Did you hear about the guy who hosts a public radio show in Seattle, John Moe, who spent a month listening to Rush Limbaugh, visiting the Reagan and Nixon libraries, not reading The New York Times and otherwise taking a walk on the right side? His book, “Conservatize Me,” will be out next year. U.S. News & World Report suggested Moe won’t miss the patriotic country and Western tunes (“Liberals have better music”) but enjoyed conservatives’ jokes. “To be funny you have to have confidence. And you develop confidence when you rule the world,” he said. If so, how come George W. Bush and Dick Cheney look so unamused these days?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Old Cowtown Museum has a brand new gateway to the past: The $1.9 million visitor’s center, a handsome Western lodge-styled building, opens today.
The center — the culmination of more than a decade of hard work by Cowtown supporters — is the first major addition to the museum since the DeVore Farm opened in 1998. This building provides a much more appealing entrance and good first impression than the old back parking lot. And with its new gift shop, restrooms, kitchen facilities and children’s amphitheater, the center also provides Wichita with a striking new meeting facility.
This is a welcome enhancement to Cowtown that, along with ongoing efforts to upgrade programming, should keep visitors coming back.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
University of Kansas professor Paul Mirecki apologized Monday for writing in an e-mail that a KU course on "intelligent design, creationism and other mythologies" would be a nice slap in the "big fat face" of fundamentalists who want intelligent design taught as science. But KU officials — though not state lawmakers — still need to get tough on Mirecki. A chairman of a religion department shouldn’t be hostile to conservative Christianity. How about making Mirecki go through a paddling line at one of KU’s fraternities?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
If city leaders and Wichita WaterWalk developers thought no one would notice if they bulldozed the Wichita Boathouse, they know better now. Reader comments in The Eagle and the launch of a “Save the Boathouse” petition drive indicate a strong desire among some to keep the 11-year-old riverfront building as a featured part of WaterWalk, rather than raze it to make way for an office building. It’s good to see citizens weighing in on this pending City Council decision. That said, it’s also frustrating that it’s taking a threat of a wrecking ball to get the community to show support for the place, which has never lived up to its promise as an attraction.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
President Bush is scheduled to give a speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., on the fight against terrorism. Rather than rely again on platitudes and vague vows about staying the course, Bush might want to use this suggested speech written by James Q. Wilson and published in The Wall Street Journal. Here is how it begins: "My fellow Americans: We are winning, and winning decisively, in Iraq and the Middle East." It then lists the successes in Iraq (yes, there have been quite a few)and why the future is hopeful.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Statehouse political observer Martin Hawver recently reported that Kansas Republicans are quietly crafting legislation that would ban "obscenity" from being used by teachers in K-12 public schools. The obvious question: Who decides what constitutes "obscenity" in curricular materials? The Legislature? The conservatives on the Kansas State Board of Education?
A recent statement by state board chairman Steve Abrams that Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison’s "Beloved" is "pornography" doesn’t bode well for such an effort.
In light of the crude crusade in 2003 by state Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, against a University of Kansas human sexuality class, do Kansans really trust social conservatives to micromanage school district curricula?
Many Kansans would see legislative meddling in this area as another heavy-handed and ill-informed attempt to censor schools and trample local control. Doesn’t sound like a political slam dunk.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Vice President Dick Cheney’s personal approval ratings are low, but his message seems to be resonating. A new poll by RT Strategies found that 70 percent of Americans said criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale, and a majority believe that the motive of the criticism is to "gain a partisan political advantage."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s no surprise that the Arab network Al-Jazeera drives the Bush administration nuts, because its influence is so broad and its perspective often so anti-American. But a British tabloid has reported the existence of a memo indicating that last year Prime Minister Tony Blair had to talk President Bush out of bombing Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Western-leaning Qatar. This memo likely is as credible as the phony CBS documents about Bush’s military service, but the story is causing more problems for Bush overseas.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Kansans are justifiably proud of native son Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Abilene youth who grew up to command Allied forces in World War II and become a popular two-term Republican president.
So it’s good to hear about plans for a new Washington, D.C., memorial to Eisenhower near the National Mall that would focus on Ike’s presidential accomplishments, including the interstate highway system and civil rights enforcement.
Historians continue to debate whether Ike was a good or great president. But there’s no doubt, looking at the sum of his career as soldier and president, that he was one of the most significant American public servants of the past century.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Wish we could say the first two brief sessions of Saddam Hussein’s trial inspired confidence that the dethroned dictator will get a swift, smooth and fair trial. They don’t. Saddam clearly intends to use the trial to gripe about his victimization. Worse, though, is the toll the case is taking on his co-defendants’ legal team — two lawyers were killed, and one has fled the country in fear. TV coverage does not include images of the faces of any defense lawyers or of all but one judge. Maybe the situation will improve when the trial resumes Dec. 5, but this test of the new Iraq is off to a rough start.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It’s good for the University of Kansas football program that this year’s team is bowl eligible. But haven’t bowls become a joke when a 6-5 record and eighth place conference finish qualify a team? Meanwhile, the Wichita State University women’s volleyball team has a 28-3 record and has been ranked in the top 25 since Oct. 17, yet it didn’t receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s been several weeks since we ran one of our cartoon caption contests. Must have been just the right amount of time off to get readers’ creative juices bubbling, as the entries seemed better than usual.Click on the cartoon to see the winners and the runners up, then have a look at some of these other close contenders. Pauline Martins of El Dorado wasn’t optimistic for the chances of a new Kansas casino. Her caption: "Sorry, guys, but if Kansas gets a new casino, looks like it’ll have to come from us!" Bruce Cole, almost a perpetual contest winner from Wichita, had a couple of good ones: "When did you guys start working on this thing? 1995?" and "Keep making it smaller. We need to hide it downstairs in the Boathouse." Then came another good caption from Bruce’s wife, Patty: "It’s on Bob Knight’s wish list again this year. Someday we’ll actually deliver it." Another previous winner, Roger Neugent of Haysville, sent "And get on those requests for state school board monkey dolls!" Personally, I like any caption with "monkey" in it, especially applied to our simian school board! Maxwell John of Wichita was in a similar frame of mind with his caption: "No rush, fellas. They have to vote on the design first, so we have several years to get that toy ready. Let’s get the Abrams Genesis Science books packages for all the good little boys and girls." Recent winner Kathy Deane touched on an issue which I thought many readers would bring up, but which few did. Her entry: "Does it come with a Gamblers Anonymous handbook?" Really liked that one. Another good one from Kathy: "Does it come with the official ‘I-love- to-gamble Barbie and Ken’"? Another former winner, Karen Wallace, turned to The King: "To quote Elvis: Return to sender, address unknown, no such number, no such zone." The wisdom of Elvis is truly timeless. Ben Sanders of Wichita thought geographically: "Nice work guys. Make sure you put it with the other gifts going to northeast Kansas." Poetry emerged from the pen of Wichita’s Ed Baylie: "T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house, everybody was gambling and drunk as a louse." Who knew that lice overindulged? Lastly, our former mayor reemerged with Jim Schlegel’s caption: "T’was the Knight before Christmas and not a vote to be found." Oh, and also from former winner Jim Holler: "What did I tell you boys about moonlighting for Bob Knight?"
Abercrombie & Fitch has proved again the adage that all publicity is good publicity, a Los Angeles Times editorial noted. After a group of teenagers from Pittsburgh, Pa., launched a “girl-cott” protest, the clothing retailer pulled from its shelves a line of girls T-shirts featuring the slogan “Who needs brains when you have these?” printed across the chest. But the company’s October revenue was up 41 percent compared with October 2004. “So though the girls who protested A&F won the battle, A&F is winning the war,” the Times wrote.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The goal of spending 65 percent of every education dollar “in the classroom” sounds worthy. That’s what prompted Kansas legislators to set such a target during last summer’s special session on school finance. But in practice, according to a new national analysis of 10 states’ data by Standard & Poor’s, there is “no significant positive correlation between the percentage of funds that districts spend on instruction, and the percentage of students who score proficient or higher on state reading and math tests.” Whether this will halt the faddish legislation around the country in support of the “65 percent solution” — promoted by Overstock.com president Patrick Byrne — is an open question.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Maybe Republican politicians just don’t get Bruce Springsteen. It was obvious that Ronald Reagan didn’t in 1984 when he tried to use Springsteen’s hit “Born in the USA” as a campaign theme song. Apparently nobody on Reagan’s campaign listened to the lyrics to find out that the song is not a patriotic message of hope.
And recently, Republicans in Congress shot down a resolution congratulating Springsteen on the 30th anniversary of his album “Born to Run.”
Harlen Coben wrote in The New York Times: “Does anybody on either side of the political aisle really believe that the Springsteen resolution was turned down for any reason other than political payback for backing John Kerry?
“We are so shameless now, so openly hostile to one another, that we don’t even pretend otherwise. Here is how the Senate power structure works: the resolution sponsored by Senator Gordon Smith, Republican of Oregon, honoring that golfer from New Zealand passed unanimously — but commending one of the seminal albums and musicians of the past 30 years gets nixed right away? Come on.”
Other the other hand, doesn’t Congress have better things to do than honor golfers and rock musicians?
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Michael Scanlon’s guilty plea last week on conspiring to bribe a member of Congress could build momentum for changing lobbying rules, especially as details come to light about the extravagant gifts that he and his partner, Jack Abramoff, showered on lawmakers. “I think most Americans play by the rules and expect their leaders in government to do the same,” Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., told The New York Times. “It is time for Congress to clean up its act.” Actually, it’s past time.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Here’s a Kansas joke that isn’t: A fake headline at the online site The Onion last week declaring, “Topeka Mayor Now Highest-Ranking Non-Indicted Republican Official.” And actually, given the recent history of trouble at Topeka’s City Hall, another city might have been a better choice for the gag.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Vice President Dick Cheney is conducting a phony war against critics, Michael Kinsley argues in his latest column. But Kinsley also notes this change among some war critics:
“Until last week, the antiwar position in the debate over Iraq closely resembled the pro-war position in the ancient debate over Vietnam. That is: It was a mistake to get in, but now that we’re in we can’t just cut and run. That was the logic on which Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger took over the Vietnam War four years after major American involvement began and kept it going for another four. American ‘credibility’ depended on our keeping our word, however foolish that word might have been. In the end, all the United States wanted was a ‘decent interval’ between our departure and the North Vietnamese triumph — and we didn’t even get that. Thousands of Americans died in Vietnam after America’s citizens and government were in general agreement that the war was a mistake.
“We are now very close to that point of general agreement in the Iraq war. Do you believe that if Bush, Cheney and company could turn back the clock, they would do this again? And now, thanks to Rep. John Murtha, it is permissible to say, or at least to ask, ‘Why not just get out now? Or at least soon, on a fixed schedule?’ ”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
There’s a lot of focus during the holidays on the homeless and unemployed — and appropriately so. But Eagle news columnist Mark McCormick wrote last week about a 50-something woman with a master’s degree and more than 20 years of management-level marketing experience. She lost her job two years ago and has struggled to find work that pays enough for her family to live on. She is one car breakdown or medical problem from going under, and she warns that there are many others like her — people who work hard but can barely make ends meet, and those who think they are OK but could quickly become downsized into her circumstances. “Please know, a rude awakening is just around the corner for many unsuspecting folks,” she said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline says he hates to handicap his chances in defending the state’s death penalty before the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 7, but he also can’t resist. He counts three of the nine justices as solidly anti-death penalty. And because Justice Sandra O’Connor will be on the bench to hear the case but likely will have retired by the time the decision is made (and incoming Justice Samuel Alito could not vote), he’s concerned it could be a 4-4 tie. “If it’s a tie, we lose unless they allow reargument,” Kline said Wednesday. And a loss not only would mean no execution for Wichitan Michael Marsh, whose sentence is on the line. It also would mean no executions for five others on Kansas’ death row, including the Carr brothers.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
CIA Director Porter Goss has denied that his agency engages in torture, but he recently told USA Today that they do use “unique and innovative ways” to gather information.
The Washington Post, in an editorial headlined “Director for Torture,” said these techniques include beatings and “waterboarding” — strapping the detainee to a board, wrapping his face in cellophane and pouring water over him to instill a drowning sensation. The editorial rightly argued that this administration is setting a new (low) standard for human rights, and asked, “If an American pilot is captured in the Middle East, then beaten, held naked in a cold cell and subjected to simulated drowning, will Mr. Goss say that he has not been tortured?”
Posted by Randy Scholfield