It’s great that President Bush will speak at Kansas State University Monday as part of the Landon Lecture series. Bush will discuss the war on terror, a subject of concern for many Americans, given the ongoing struggles in Iraq and revelations about eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without a warrant. And unlike many of Bush’s public appearances, this one won’t be restricted to a prescreened, GOP-loyal crowd; the lecture is open to all K-State students — provided they have a ticket (which became available at noon today).
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
David P. Rundle, a freelance writer who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, wrote a diary-like commentary on today’s Opinion page about his struggles with the new Medicare prescription drug plan. Rundle is a “dual-eligible” — meaning that he qualifies both for Medicare and Medicaid. He must take his medicine; otherwise he has seizures. But he wrote of the trouble and frustration he had trying to get his drugs, and at the proper price. Said Rundle: “It is cruel and unfair to make many of our most vulnerable citizens go through this.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Judicial Watch, the conservative legal group that pried damning government records out of the Clinton administration, has now turned up a document that further undermines the Bush administration’s prewar claim that Saddam Hussein was trying to acquire nuclear materials. The 2002 State Department memo concluded that the sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq was improbable because of a host of economic, diplomatic and logistical obstacles, The New York Times reported. Yet the infamous "16 words" about an attempted sale still made President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address, and Scooter Libby felt it necessary to out former CIA agent Valerie Plame.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Here’s left-wing author and blogger David Corn on how the Democrats’ strategy (if you can call it that) at the Samuel Alito hearings failed:
"I still don’t know what the Democrats were thinking. It seems to me they had one strategy — the gotcha strategy. They were hoping to rattle Alito with pointed questions and produce a gaffe-moment that they could then use to define Alito as some sort of crazy-man. But he proved a better hitter than they were pitchers. There were no strikeouts on his part."
Posted by Melissa Cooley
It can take some doing to get the Legislature and gubernatorial administration to serve the interests specific to Wichita. Not coincidentally, no Wichitan has been elected governor since 1951-55 (Ed Arn, in photo) or speaker of the Kansas House since 1949-50 (Dale M. Bryant). And as we found out in researching a Capitol quiz in the Sunday Eagle, no Wichitan has ever been elected president of the Kansas Senate. What’s keeping Wichitans out of these top, agenda-setting jobs? The drive? The pay? Lack of ambition and leadership skills? Or the rest of the state’s antipathy for Wichita?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The 2004 passage of the bill allowing children of undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at Kansas colleges stood out for its commonsense approach to reality. These kids are here. They’re attending and graduating from Kansas elementary and secondary schools. And when they’re ready and willing to go to college, they shouldn’t be priced out by having to pay out-of-state tuition. Under the law, their parents must sign an affidavit promising to seek legal residency. So it’s regrettable that opponents, having been turned away by the courts (their appeal is pending), have returned to the Legislature in an attempt to repeal the law.
Rep. Becky Hutchins, R-Holton, is inexplicably arguing, among other things, that a repeal is necessary for budget reasons. But legislators got it right two years ago. The proof: the 37 students who enrolled under the law in its first year and the 221 using it this school year, mostly at technical and community colleges. The further proof will come later, in the form of the taxes they pay and the productive role they play as well-educated members of the Kansas economy.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
