More surreal testimony in the federal court trial in Wichita about whether doctors must report sexual activity by teens to state authorities, regardless of whether it is consensual. Last week, Attorney General Phill Kline indicated that as far as reporting rules, it was probably OK for girls to perform oral sex on boys, but not the other way around. Monday, another Kline witness said that boys should be able to buy condoms but girls shouldn’t have access to birth-control pills. Then Tuesday, another witness said that it mattered whether the boy was black or white. What? Is this really a modern-day trial or a "Twilight Zone" flashback to some Southern courtroom in the 1950s?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Some have expressed shock at how Coretta Scott King’s funeral Tuesday became a forum for Bush bashing in particular and politics in general. But how could it have been otherwise in America, circa 2006? The widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been a vocal critic of the Iraq war and otherwise at odds with the current White House. Her perspective was bound to be represented at such an event. It also was only right that President Bush be present, too, given King’s role in the civil rights struggle and stature in American life. And Bush is big enough to be able to sit through the criticism.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Eagle editorial cartoonist Richard Crowson has a column on today’s opinion pages about the uproar over the Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad and the power of graphic images. He writes: “I should be elated. I should be doing cartwheels up and down the hallways of The Wichita Eagle. After years of scribbling in relative obscurity, hacking off a state representative here, a school board member there, I have just received news that I have the power to cause international incidents.” Instead, Crowson says, he is saddened by the deep fissure between the Muslim world and the Western democracies, and the lack of support for press freedom.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
One significant but overlooked part of the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling last week safeguarding the privacy rights of abortion clinic patients was its statement upholding mental health exceptions for late-term abortions.
The justices noted that Attorney General Phill Kline “has said he disagrees with requiring an exception to preserve the pregnant woman’s mental health” — over the years, it’s been a frequent line in Kline’s anti-abortion talking points.
The court noted, “Until the United States Supreme Court or the federal Constitution says otherwise, however, the mental health of the pregnant woman remains a consideration necessary to assure the constitutionality of the Kansas criminal abortion statute.”
That pretty directly refutes Kline’s objection on this point. It’s the law.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
As far as we’ve been able to tell from Eagle archives, Sedgwick County officials never said the arena sales tax would end the instant that $184.5 million was in the till. But an early end would seem to be a reasonable expectation, now that the 30-month, 1 percent sales tax is ahead of schedule, having raised $4.8 million more than anticipated in its first five months. Many taxpayers may not like hearing that because of lag time necessitated by the state, they could end up overpaying for the downtown arena by $15 million or more. Our editorial on today’s opinion pages explains how this could happen and why County Commission Chairman Ben Sciortino says “it’s a good thing,” and urges officials nevertheless to try to end it early if at all possible.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Beyond the debate about whether the spending priorities in President Bush’s fiscal year 2007 budget are appropriate — defense and homeland security are up sharply, while education and other domestic programs are being cut — is the question of whether the numbers really add up. Experts say they don’t, at least not related to Bush’s pledge to cut the deficit, The Washington Post reported.
The budget assumes no military expenditures in Iraq in Afghanistan beyond 2007 and that it won’t cost anything to adjust the alternative minimum tax system, which is supposed to tax the rich but is affecting the middle class. The budget also assumes that Congress will cut domestic spending every year after 2007. As Wall Street economists have noted, such assumptions are “unrealistic.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
