I have no problem with Rush Limbaugh (in mug shot) reaching a dealwith Florida prosecutors to drop a fraud charge after 18 months if Limbaugh continues to undergo treatment for drug addiction and pays $30,000 to offset the cost of the investigation. He didn’t intend to get hooked on painkillers, and sending him to prison serves little purpose. But what irritates many people is that, over the years, Limbaugh hasn’t shown similar compassion to others with drug problems. He’s been a cheerleader for the lock-’em-up mind-set that has filled our nation’s prisons with nonviolent drug offenders who, like Limbaugh, needed treatment, not incarceration.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Not only are high oil prices hurting our economy and household budgets, they are also funding anti-democratic governments. In an article in the latest Foreign Policy magazine, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that “the price of oil and the pace of freedom always move in opposite directions.” In fact, the magazine attempted to chart how when oil prices are low, governments such as Iran have been much more open to the west and to democracy than when oil prices are high and they no longer have to care.
Instead of pointing fingers and proposing short-term fixes that would have minimal impact on the world oil market and our national security, how about Republican and Democratic leaders, including President Bush, committing this country to freeing itself from its dependence on foreign oil, similar to President Kennedy’s challenge to put an American on the moon by the end of the decade?
As we noted in our editorial Friday: “If the United States is as ‘addicted to oil’ as Bush said it is during the State of the Union address — and it is — what it needs is the leadership to kick the habit, through a moon shot-like initiative on energy independence. As entanglements such as Iraq should have taught us by now, too, finding new ways to power our country also could serve the goal of securing it.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., asked an excellent question this week in proposing to block funding for the National Security Agency’s warrantless spying program unless Congress is better briefed about it: “Where is the outrage?” Since the initial revelations about the program, too many in Congress (including Kansas’ delegation) have been more concerned about the leak that made the program public knowledge than about the program’s legality, accountability and oversight.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Where a lot of Americans see nothing but trouble in the immigration issue, President Bush may see a big chunk of his legacy. After the president’s Tuesday meeting with senators, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., predicted to The Wall Street Journal that Bush “is really going to lean into this one.” Bush urged Brownback to read Nick Kotz’s “Judgment Days,” which recounts how President Johnson bucked his own Southern Democratic base leading to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “I think this is Bush’s time as far as affecting millions of people,” Brownback said.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Are Americans ready to give Dubai a break? The answer will come soon, with President Bush having approved a deal to allow a Dubai-owned company to control nine U.S. plants that make turbine blades for tanks and military aircraft. The company is Dubai International Capital, which is buying British company Doncasters Group. At least this time, Congress has been briefed and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States appears to have handled the review process with care. Maybe in the weeks since the Dubai ports deal collapsed, the White House has figured out how to close this one without looking soft on terrorism.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
