The reputation of Washington Post reporter and editor Bob Woodward took a hit this week with the revelation that he was told about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame by an unnamed administration official (whom the Post says wasn’t “Scooter” Libby). Woodward learned about Plame before Libby reportedly talked to New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Yet Woodward never told his Post superiors about this conversation. What’s more, he condemned the leak investigation in TV and radio interviews without any disclosure about his own involvement. Many are asking where Woodward’s loyalties lie — to journalism and his newspaper, or to his book projects. And whether Woodward is too close to his sources.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Incoming — more reactions to the Kansas State Board of Education’s science standards vote. Of the board’s opening of the door to the teaching of supernatural explanations, the Berkshire (Mass.) Eagle editorialized: “What’s next? Werewolves and vampires being discussed in the same class as mammals and amphibians? Are witch trials far behind? Can psychics testify in court?”
And Richard Doak, a columnist for the Des Moines Register, saw in Kansas’ misfortune a call to action for his state: “While Kansas is adopting school standards that make the state a laughingstock among scientists, Iowa should adopt an official state goal of making Iowa schoolkids the most scientifically literate in the nation.” Of course, Kansas could set the same goal for its schoolkids, but given the past week’s headlines over the science standards, would sky-high test scores down the road even register on the national consciousness?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The United States is a superpower with vast worldwide security commitments and trade ties, but its citizens don’t know much about the world. That’s a dangerous combination.
Here’s one good solution: More young Americans should study abroad, according to a new report by the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Program.
The commission noted the shortage of Americans with foreign language and in-country experience, and recommended that Congress eventually give $125 million a year to send up to 1 million students abroad.
Instead of paying to build bridges to nowhere in Alaska, Congress should be building bridges to other countries by sending our young people overseas.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
No doubt some U.S. senators have been watching the poll numbers and thinking about next year’s elections. But whatever their motivation, it was good that the Senate stepped up, albeit timidly, this week and demanded that the Bush administration “explain to Congress and the American people its strategy for the successful completion of the mission in Iraq.” The public has grown increasingly frustrated with “stay the course” responses, when the status quo is daily bombings and little progress in training Iraqi troops. Lawmakers such as Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., also don’t appreciate recent speeches by Bush that demonized war critics. “Suggesting that to challenge and criticize policy is undermining and hurting our troops is not democratic, nor what this country has stood for over 200 years,” Hagel said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Speaking at Senate hearings last week, the chief executives of five Big Oil companies denied that their companies attended secret meetings with Cheney’s 2001 energy task force.
Some of them should be glad they didn’t testify under oath: A White House document obtained this week by The Washington Post shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco, Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. indeed met with the Cheney task force and provided them with detailed energy policy suggestions.
Did that special access have anything to do with the generous subsidies and tax breaks subsequently offered to the industry? Sure looks that way.
At any rate, Cheney’s secrecy — and the oil exec’s dissembling — don’t inspire trust in open government.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
San Francisco atheist Michael Newdow, the guy behind the “under God” challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance, is expected to file a lawsuit in federal court today demanding that the motto “In God We Trust” be removed from U.S. money. It’s the American way to sue people at will, even if it’s for bad reasons. But in his misguided zeal to get any hint of God out of the public square, this guy only makes it harder for those concerned about more willful and contemporary attempts by specific faiths to get government and public schools to do their bidding. “In God We Trust” hurts no one.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
As speaker of the Kansas House, Tim Shallenburger proved deft at keeping Republican lawmakers of opposing ideological stripes in line. So it’s been surprising to see him have less success as chairman of the Kansas Republican Party. He’s even been warning the faithful this week that he’ll quit if they don’t come together soon. And there was a telling exchange at last week’s Wichita Pachyderm Club gathering, with local anti-abortion activist Mark Gietzen assailing Shallenburger for “welcoming pro-aborts” into the party. Fears of mass defections to the Democratic Party and significant losses of legislative seats next year seem overblown. But especially with Democrat Kathleen Sebelius newly singled out by Time magazine as one of the nation’s five best governors — and no GOP heavyweight opposing her next year — the Kansas GOP doesn’t look as powerful these days as its voter registration numbers would indicate.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The basic facts of a case heard Tuesday by Sedgwick County District Judge Greg Waller are beyond awful, the sort of thing you expect to see on TV rather than in your community: three young sisters in a southeast Wichita home, repeatedly raped for at least two years by their older brother and their father. The maximum 27-year sentences Waller imposed on each rapist after their guilty pleas won’t right the horrible wrongs done in that house in our community. But as the case shocks the conscience, the way it ended — with one girl confiding in a neighbor — should be a call to be more vigilant as a community.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
