I thought I would try something new and have a thread that is open for comments on whatever topic you want. That way you don’t have to wait on us to kick off a particular subject or react to breaking news. Let me know if you would like this to be a regular feature.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It would certainly be better for the state budget and taxpayers if the Legislature phases in a funding increase for K-12 education. A House proposal released Thursday would spread $500 million in new school spending over the next three years. But would the Kansas Supreme Court really go for phasing in a constitutional requirement? After all, the reason for the delay is primarily political: Lawmakers and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius don’t want to raise taxes during an election year.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Michael Shermer wrote an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times about Holocaust denier David Irving being sentenced to three years in jail. He brought up some points about the First Amendment that are relevant to the debate in this state about Fred Phelps’ appalling funeral protests. He writes:
“The important question here is not whether Irving is a Holocaust denier (he is), or whether he offends people with what he says (he does), but why anyone, anywhere should be imprisoned for expressing dissenting views or saying offensive things. . . .
“Freedom is a principle that must be applied indiscriminately. We have to defend Irving in order to defend ourselves. Once the laws are in place to jail dissidents of Holocaust history, what’s to stop such laws from being applied to dissenters of religious or political histories, or to skepticism of any sort that deviates from the accepted canon?”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Republican turned Democrat attorney general candidate Paul Morrison (in photo) isn’t the only person in his campaign being accused of being disloyal to the GOP. One of the co-chairmen of his campaign is former Wichitan Mark Parkinson — a past chairman of the Kansas Republican Party and a former GOP state lawmaker. Conservative activist John Altevogt of Kansas City contends that Parkinson is an “agent provocateur” planted by the Democratic Party to “sow discord and seek every opportunity to undermine honest Republican candidates.” Parkinson argues that Morrison’s campaign team — which also includes co-chairwoman Wichitan Jill Docking — “shows the bipartisan nature of this race and our effort to take politics out of the attorney general’s office.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Surprise, surprise. The Kansas House voted Thursday to expand a bill requiring state inspections of abortion clinics to include all clinics that perform office-based surgeries. It’s a commonsense regulation that reflects the changing delivery of health systems. It also reflects a political reality: Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has twice vetoed a bill limited to only abortion clinics, but has indicated that she would support one that included all surgical centers. If the purpose of the regulation is to protect patients and not just harass abortion providers or create a campaign issue, why not support the broader bill that likely can become law? Interestingly, the change revealed the divide within the Kansas pro-life community, with Right to Life Kansas supporting the change, and Kansans For Life opposing it.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Government should help create wealth, not just redistribute it, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne (in photo) argues in this piece. It could do so, according to a recent study, by reconnecting the “nearly 3 million less-educated young people between the ages of 16 and 24” to education and employment.
Dionne writes: “The decline of manufacturing employment means the economy is producing fewer well-paying jobs for the less-skilled. These disconnected young men tend to go to the poorest schools, grow up amid concentrated poverty and in families that often lack fathers, and face persistent employment discrimination. Face it: The one expensive social program we have for this group is incarceration. Can’t we do better?”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
