Here’s Garrison Keillor’s humorous take on how the president could improve his approval rating:
“If Mr. Bush wanted to reverse his slide, he could do it with a phone call to his vice president. Tell him, ‘Hey, Gunner, I’m sending over your resignation. Sign it and leave the building immediately, and don’t take any floppies with you.’ Mr. Cheney would have a grand mal seizure right there, and be taken away to a sanitarium, and then Mr. Bush could get 1) Newt Gingrich, 2) John McCain, 3) Jeb Bush, 4) Rudolph Giuliani — take his pick. America needs a No. 2 who wouldn’t give Americans a coronary if he became No. 1. The top story on the news that night is ‘Gunner Dumped as Veep,’ and a fresh breeze blows through Washington, and the American people perk up and imagine that the Current Occupant is in charge and able to connect the dots.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
One should read into the U.S. Supreme Court’s request to rehear arguments in Kansas’ death penalty case with extreme caution. It might mean that new Justice Samuel Alito needs the benefit of a rehearing to break a tie. It might mean no such thing. Still, the request indicates that the law’s constitutionality isn’t a slam dunk at this point. For that, state lawmakers can blame their predecessors, who ignored then-Attorney General Carla Stovall’s warning more than a decade ago that the newly revived death penalty had a problem. Meanwhile, nine death sentences, no executions. Hard to believe this is what Kansans expected by this point.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Inuit people of the Arctic remain in tune with their environment in a way that is foreign to the world’s growing urban population. That’s why the environmental changes they are witnessing should serve as a warning to the rest of the world as to what global warming could bring. Here’s one anecdote from a sobering article in The Washington Post:
“Villagers say the shrinking ice floes mean they see hungry polar bears more frequently. In the Hudson Bay village of Ivujivik, Lydia Angyiou, a slight woman of 41, was walking in front of her 7-year-old boy last month when she turned to see a polar bear stalking the child. To save him, she charged with her fists into the 700-pound bear, which slapped her twice to the ground before a hunter shot it, according to the Nunatsiaq News.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
It’s an election year, so expect to see more events such as the “War on Christians and the Values Voter 2006” conference today and Tuesday in Washington, D.C., where religious conservatives are rallying grassroots Christian soldiers with apocalyptic visions of “savage and accelerating” attacks on Christians by Hollywood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the judiciary and the liberal media.
It’s no surprise that Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is one of the main speakers at the event. He’s shown that he knows who punches his political meal ticket. But by peddling this brand of culture war divisiveness and paranoia, he risks undermining his crossover appeal down the stretch.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The good news: For now, a court in Afghanistan is in no rush to execute Abdul Rahman, ordering prosecutors to do a mental health evaluation of the convert to Christianity. The bad news: Such clashes of democratic freedoms and Islamic law surely will continue to occur in our Muslim ally countries, most notably Iraq.
When they do, the Bush administration must be more clear and swift in condemning this kind of violation of religious freedom. If such cases become the rule rather than the exception, the American public’s already waning support for continued deployment of U.S. troops in these countries could vaporize.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is getting tarred as a lefty on immigration, with Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., last week even calling Brownback “an extreme opponent of getting tough on illegal immigration.” But as part of the bipartisan effort in the Senate Judiciary Committee to craft a sensible immigration reform bill, in contrast to the Tancredo-backed House version, Brownback is dealing with reality. “No bill before the committee proposes blanket amnesty. . . . Border security is our main priority. We are working to merge the best of several proposals, and hopefully we can all agree that we must protect our borders, enforce the law, provide legal means for people to work in the United States, and fix a broken system,” he said. That may not play well with the right-wingers who’d rather pretend undocumented immigrants aren’t already here and contributing to the economy, but it finds Brownback on the right side of this crucial issue.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
An article in The Weekly Standard recounts the efforts of state Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, to prevent Kansas from becoming the first state in the country to own and operate casinos. “We need to stand up and say enough is enough,” Wagle told author Matthew Continetti. So far, it’s working. The plan Senate leaders had hoped would pass this session was defeated earlier this month. But the article suggests the odds are against Wagle long term, in part because gambling is proliferating in so many other states. “The gambling industry has insinuated itself into American culture and politics to such an extent that, if games were suddenly banned, the fiscal footing of many state governments would be undermined.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
An Iraqi company is capturing our capitalistic spirit. The Iraq Insurance Company appears to the first company in the world to offer an off-the-shelf life insurance policy specifically covering terrorism attacks, The New York Times reported. The rider covers “1) explosions caused by weapons of war and car bombs; 2) assassinations; 3) terrorist attacks.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
With talk of a White House staff shake-up increasing, John Dickerson of Slate looked back on the staff changes that have already occurred in the administration:
“There have already been so many departures from it that they can be broken up into categories:
– I can’t work here: Colin Powell, Rand Beers, and John Dilulio
– I can’t work here; I’ll tell you why in print: Paul O’Neill, Richard Clarke, Christie Todd Whitman
– My job is done here: George Tenet, Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer
– I can’t work here because I’m going to court: Scooter Libby, Claude Allen, David Safavian
– I can’t work anywhere: Michael Brown.”
Dickerson goes on to argue that if the White House does shake up its staff, it would probably be more of a P.R. move than a sign of significant changes to come.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., defends the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program in an op-ed piece on today’s Opinion pages. Roberts argues that the program is legal and is essential to our national security. “My briefings on this program absolutely convince me it has saved, and will save, American lives,” he writes. Roberts also charges that the criticism of the program by Democrats has been politically motivated, and says that his support of it hasn’t been partisan, as many have alleged. “My actions are not a partisan defense of the president, but are to protect the authority this president, and future presidents, must have to safeguard our nation,” he says.
Roberts concludes: “I will continue to be an advocate for this and other constitutional tools our intelligence community needs to stop national security threats before they get to our shores.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Lots of Kansans were worked up over the governor’s veto of the concealed-carry bill and the Legislature’s override of her veto. But Darrell Wilson, executive director of the Kansas Sheriff’s Association and a former Saline County sheriff, predicts the new law won’t have much impact. “Some people, as soon as they can, they’ll start carrying one,” Wilson told The Salina Journal. “Before long, they’ll find out there aren’t bad guys to shoot every other day, and the newness will wear off. They’ll leave it home one day, then they won’t carry it for a couple of days, and pretty soon they won’t be carrying it at all.” He could be right.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Fascinating news about our universe that boggles the imagination: Results from a NASA satellite program measuring the cosmic afterglow of the big bang suggest that in a trillionth of a second(!), the universe expanded from the size of a marble to billions of light-years in extent.
Try to wrap your mind around that concept.
The research “is telling us that the universe is vastly bigger than we ever imagined — so big that we no longer have any reason to believe that our tiny patch of it is representative of the whole thing,” Stanford University physicist Leonard Susskind told USA Today.
“We, and all we can see, are at most a tiny dot in an unimaginably large sea of space and time,” Susskind said.
Stunning evidence of a universe that is wondrous beyond our imagining.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The Kansas House vote tally on school finance must have looked strange to many outside the Wichita area: The only votes from Wichita legislators for a bill that would deliver nearly $29 million in new money to Wichita schools next year came from eight Democrats and one Republican, Rep. Dale Swenson. That means eight Wichita legislators, all Republicans, voted “no.” Chief among their reasons was the three-year plan’s price tag, $610 million. Another sticking point was the new inequity it risks with property-rich Johnson County. Rep. Willa DeCastro, R-Wichita, called the bill “totally irresponsible” and said, “I think the big question is, besides gambling, how do you want to pay for it?” It’s an excellent question. But it’s also irresponsible to blow off a Kansas Supreme Court order and a legislative audit that found that Wichita schools are significantly underfunded.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Remember the flap last spring over Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ rescinded invitation as graduation speaker at a prestigious Catholic school in Cincinnati? Joseph T. Devlin, the head of the school, had both invited the Ohio native to speak, then uninvited her after complaints about Sebelius’ pro-choice views and voting record. Well, Devlin has lost that job, after a three-year tenure that saw more trouble than just the Sebelius matter. Meanwhile, the popular governor appears likely to keep her own job for another four years.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
According to a list of travel requests his office presents to hotels, Vice President Dick Cheney asks that all lights in his room be turned on and that all televisions be tuned to Fox News (of course). Among the other demands: a desk with chair, a king- or queen-size bed, a coffeepot, a microwave oven and four cans of Diet Sprite. All in all, those are pretty modest demands for the second-most powerful man in the country.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
The Wichita State University men’s basketball team may have ended its magical season with Friday’s hard fall to George Mason University in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament. But the pride that coach Mark Turgeon and his boys reignited in the community and state is real and lasting, sure to keep hopes high and black and gold in style until it’s time to start rocking the Roundhouse again in November. Thanks, guys. Seeing WSU and Wichita get such positive attention in the nation and even the state was a sweet victory itself. Congratulations to all those on campus and off who helped bring Wichita and Kansas such a thrilling season.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Bush administration lately seems to be suggesting there are two wars in Iraq — the one it sees and the one that Americans see through a biased, pessimistic media. On Monday in Ohio, President Bush said some Americans have had “their confidence shaken” by the “violence they see each night on their television screens, and they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in Iraq. They wonder what I see that they don’t.” Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation”: “There’s a constant sort of perception, if you will, that’s created because what’s newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad. It’s not all the work that went on that day in 15 other provinces in terms of making progress towards rebuilding Iraq.”
But what of former Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s statement Sunday that “if this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is”? (Bush disagreed with that assessment Tuesday, while calling Allawi “a good fellow.”)
In the process of blaming the messenger, of course, the administration badly underestimates the American public’s ability to assess what’s what in Iraq. The sectarian violence speaks for itself. It’s the Bush war strategy that continues to baffle.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Actor and registered liberal George Clooney was right to blast Democrats recently for failing to speak out against the disastrous war in Iraq, but others within the party who have more foreign policy credentials are saying the same thing:
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser during the Carter administration, said in a recent speech that “Democrats have been silent or evasive” on Iraq and had failed to offer a clear alternative. Their reluctance to aggressively challenge the administration’s Iraq strategy, he said, amounted to “political desertion.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Drunken driving is a serious problem that deserves serious action. But I’m not sure about Texas’ new approach. The state is now arresting people for being drunk — in bars. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is sending undercover agents into bars to catch violators of the state’s public intoxication laws. Its goal is to catch drunks before they go out and do something stupid like drive or “jump off of balconies.” It seems like the state is putting a lot of resources into arresting people who may or may not do something stupid. What do you think?
Posted by Melissa Cooley
We got a kick out of The Salina Journal’s editorial earlier this week on the legislation aimed at securing $5 million a year in state help to subsidize low fares and expand service at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. Written as a fable headlined “When pigs try to fly,” the editorial cast Wichita as the selfish pig with a “flighty dream.” It was difficult to figure out which players were being portrayed as the hen, cow, duck, cat, dog, etc., and for a moment it seemed as if the pig seeking a bigger sty was actually meant to be Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans. It concluded, “The Wichita pigs went to Topeka and asked other animals to help. But they all said no. The pigs are on their own, they said, because they never helped anyone else.”
Fortunately, the bill has cleared both chambers of the Legislature as of Friday, because many lawmakers around the state fully recognize the airport’s economic value to Kansas. The end.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Have you seen the high-tech billboard blazing up the night sky above Starbucks at Central and Rock Road? It looks like a giant big-screen TV. Talk about eye-catching — or maybe it’s just distracting and annoying.
Is this the future of outdoor signage? Rock Road might look like Times Square pretty soon if this is a trend. Will drivers have to wear sunglasses, even at night?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The Wichita school district needs to work with the Wichita Police Department on a policy restricting the use of Tasers in schools. Tasers can be dangerous and potentially deadly, so they shouldn’t be used on children except in extreme situations, such as a brawl or when a student has a knife. Based on initial reports, the use of a Taser on a 15-year-old student at Wichita North High School last week doesn’t meet this standard. The district also should report to parents and the public when a Taser is used, which it didn’t do in this case.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Three members of Christian Peacemaker Teams being held hostage in Iraq were found and freed Thursday. Thank goodness. The murdered body of a fourth member, Tom Fox, was found earlier this month. Conservative columnist Cal Thomas angered many Eagle readers last week with a column criticizing the Christian Peacemaker Teams’ theology and politics. He argued that “peace happens when evil is vanquished.” Several area Mennonite pastors responded, including Martin Troyer. He wrote in Wednesday’s Eagle: “Peace is not a byproduct of war, as Thomas said. Rather, it is a strategy in and of itself. It is a lifestyle that demands us to live today what we want to see in our world tomorrow. It is the way that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, lived.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Was the parting of congressional Republicans with President Bush on the Dubai ports deal the result of “battered-Congress syndrome”? That’s what congressional scholar Norman J. Ornstein has termed the recent surfacing of suppressed GOP anger. The publicly unified Republican Congress of the past few years may have been hiding divisions and feelings of being underappreciated and bullied by the administration, this Washington Post article says. Many in Congress now feel their support of the White House agenda — which included Social Security reform, the Medicare prescription drug plan and No Child Left Behind — came at a cost. It will be interesting to see if the White House responds to calls to shake up its staff to ease the tension.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
