Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Topeka, denies that he got a sweetheart deal on his Washington, D.C., townhouse, but it does smell fishy. Ryun paid the U.S. Family Network $410,000 for the house in 2000, $19,000 less than the group paid for it two years earlier. Ryun has said that he paid less because of some structural problems. But the real estate market was rapidly rising at the time (and the house is currently assessed at $764,310).
A big part of the suspicion is the sleaziness of U.S. Family Network. The nonprofit group was founded by Ed Buckham, an evangelical minister and former chief of staff to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas. It was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to former lobbyist and now convicted felon Jack Abramoff, and more than a third of that money — $1 million — went to Buckham and his wife, The Washington Post reported.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
How remarkable that freelance reporter Jill Carroll was released unharmed in Baghdad, after three months of captivity and those heart-wrenching videotape appeals. “They never hit me. They never even threatened to hit me,” she said on Iraqi TV. Sadly, Carroll’s happy ending does not appear to be a sign of any trend away from violence in the country. According to U.S. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the Iraqi casualties have soared in the past few weeks, to a daily average of about 75 dead and wounded. That rate is higher than the past two years.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., argued in a commentary in Sunday’s Eagle that the National Security Agency’s secret wiretapping program is needed to protect homeland security. But why can’t the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court oversee the program to make sure the wiretapping is legal and justified?
Five former FISA judges argued before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week for just such a role, The New York Times reported. The judges also warned that the program could imperil criminal prosecutions that grew out of the wiretaps. And Harold A. Baker, who served on the FISA court until last year, said the president was bound by the law “like everyone else,” and that “the president ignores it at the president’s peril.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
“The dilemma of advanced democracies, including the United States, is that they’ve made more promises than they can keep,” Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson wrote about the labor protests in France. “Their political commitments outstrip the economy’s capacity to deliver.” And the political dilemma, he notes, is that “to disavow past promises incites public furor; not to disavow them worsens the country’s future problems.”
Hence, Congress still hasn’t reformed Social Security.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Sedgwick County finally has a state lawmaker going to bat for the majority of its citizens who want to vote on a local casino. And, of course, he’s not from here. Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, wants to let Sedgwick County residents decide for themselves whether they want expanded gaming, and in what form. “Up until now, they’ve been stifled by their own County Commission at the insistence of Sedgwick County legislators,” he said. But count on those local lawmakers to do their best to block Hensley and the will of the public.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Something to consider in the wake of the use of a Taser on a Wichita North High School student this month: More than 150 people in the country have died in the past five years after being shocked by the weapons, according to Amnesty International, which seeks a moratorium on their use by police. Let it also be said that the manufacturer’s Web site offers lots of anecdotal evidence about the Taser’s ability to save lives. Clearly, the nation is still deciding what to make of this new high-tech weaponry.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Not everybody on the Wichita City Council had a favorable first impression Tuesday of the $150,000 light sculpture proposed for the Rock Road overpass at Kellogg. That’s not surprising. By definition, art and design strike each viewer differently. Part of the success of Wichita’s 16-year public art program has been its breadth, from traditional to contemporary. As council members take another month to consider the design, by artist Todd Whipple in collaboration with Dan Gegen and Chris Frank, they may better understand what prompted the 15 professionals on the city’s volunteer Art and Design Review Board to give the sculpture their unanimous approval. Wichita will make a lasting statement about itself in how it chooses to adorn and enhance such a visible intersection.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
