We’re going to try an experiment Tuesday night: A ‘live’ blog discussion during President Bush’s State of the Union address. What we will do is start a string, and then you can post your reactions — what you agree with, what you don’t — while the speech is going on. And, of course, the comments can continue after the speech. Hope you are available and will join the discussion.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Another top government scientist is claiming that the Bush administration is trying to silence him because his research doesn’t match the White House’s political views. James E. Hansen (in photo), director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that officials at NASA had ordered a review of his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists after he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming, The New York Times reported.
Dean Acosta from the NASA public affairs office said that there is no effort to silence Hansen; Acosta said that policy statements should be left to policymakers and appointed agency spokesmen. And Mary L. Cleave, deputy associated administrator of NASA’s Office of Earth Science, told The Washington Post that the restrictions on giving interviews were meant as “protection” to make sure the scientists weren’t misquoted.
That’s not how Hansen and others see it. “They’re trying to control what’s getting out to the public,” he said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
A new large-scale research study found that, after adjusting for socioeconomic differences, public school students outperform their private school peers on fourth- and eighth-grade standardized math tests, The New York Times reported. In fact, the study found that students at self-described conservative Christian schools were as much as one year behind comparable counterparts in public schools.
Vouchers and charter school supporters point out that the study gave only a snapshot of performance and didn’t show how students progressed over time. But that snapshot at least tries to address an argument that Wichita public school officials have long made: Unless you adjust for student demographics, school comparisons are not very comparable.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
President Bush will have his work cut out for him when he gives his State of the Union address Tuesday. In a recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, by more than 2-to-1, those surveyed said things have gotten worse in the United States over the past five years. It may take more than a speech to convince them otherwise.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Here is an example of how slight changes to a poll question can change the responses. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll on wiretapping had a question noting that “After 9/11, George W. Bush authorized government wiretaps on some phone calls in the U.S. without getting court warrants.” It then asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of this?” Fifty percent disapproved, and 46 percent approved. But when the same poll question substituted “President Bush” for “George W. Bush” and added the phrase, “saying this was necessary to reduce the threat of terrorism,” the disapproval numbers dipped to 46 percent, and the approvals climbed to 53 percent. No wonder Bush, Karl Rove and other administration officials have been conducting a public relations offensive in recent days, linking wiretapping to terrorism and national security.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Best wishes to Rep. Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, for his latest attempt to shove the state out of the way of local governments looking to consolidate. As it is, local consolidations require the Legislature’s blessing. But such efforts are difficult enough to pull off at the local level. The state shouldn’t have to sign off, too — especially when Kansas ranks fifth in the nation in per capita units of government.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Kansas wine lovers who would like to order wines directly by mail or the Internet from out-of-state wineries or local producers would get stomped on by a bill in the Legislature.
A proposal to allow direct shipments has been hijacked by the state’s liquor wholesalers, who want all wine shipments to go through them. As Norm Jennings, a member of the state’s wine and grape industry advisory council, told a Senate committee, the change could put many Kansas growers out of business.
Lawmakers should cut out the middlemen and preserve what should have been a needed simplification of Kansas law.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
