Sen. John Warner, R-Va. (see ABC News photo), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, vowed Sunday to hold hearings on the killing of Iraqi civilians last November in Haditha. The public needs to learn more about what happened and allegations that some Marines shot two dozens civilians, including women and children. Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., told ABC that the incident was "worse than Abu Ghraib" prison abuse, in part because the military apparently didn’t start its investigation until Time magazine reported the killings in March. There is a separate military probe into whether the Marines and their superiors filed false reports to try to cover up the incident.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The turnout was down a bit for this week’s cartoon contest. I’m not sure if that’s a reflection of readers’ disinterest in the subject, early summer lackadaisical-ness or a lame drawing on my part. At any rate, the entries we did have were up-to-par in quality if not quantity. I wish I had bothered to check the calendar when I drew the cartoon. If I had, I would have realized that the captioned version of it would be running on Memorial Day and I would have tried to devise a drawing more appropriate to the somberness of that occasion. Wu is many things, but he’s not exactly reverential of our fallen heroes.
Click on the image to see this week’s winner. One reason we chose Carol Herter’s caption was because she took the opportunity to make a point about another WSU-related issue rather than just sticking to the subject of Wu’s makeover. And she did it in a clever way. Venettia Maddux of El Dorado came close to winning with her caption: "Maybe we should consult with the arena designers." Peck’s Richard Julius was in a similar mode with his entry: "Is this option A, B or C?" He also hit on a good one-word caption: "Frankenshock!" The "Frankenshock" line was also used by Les Taylor of Wichita. Bruce Cole of Wichita submitted: "I’ll be adding a Turgeon crewcut and a Stephenson mustache. What else?" Then Bruce got classical with this twist: "Alas, poor Wu! I knew him well." Wichita’s Jan Nyberg sent in, "How about just using Botox injections?" Interesting twist from Robert J. Jones of Pratt: "I’m not sure if proving he’s been here over 5 years, that he does a job most Americans wouldn’t do and calling him "El Wushock" would be enough to save him." Jeffrey Love of Hutch said, "What the hell…nobody knows what a real wheatshocker looks like anyway!" Todd Mitchell of Wichita sent, "Let’s see…the Tar Heels have a goat mascot, The Auburn Tigers’ mascot is an eagle and Gonzaga’s the Zags (whatever that is). Hmmm…maybe ours isn’t so dumb after all!" Then, going back to the Frankenshock idea, or perhaps Young Frankenshock, Jimbo Kipcak of Lajitas, Texas sent this: "I only agreed to do this because they promised me Teri Garr as an assistant."
Five people in Delaware face charges after a scuffle with members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka who were picketing a military funeral.
Was it any surprise that this would happen, sooner or later? It’s lucky no one was seriously hurt.
That very real potential for violence is one argument for the state laws being passed to keep Fred Phelps and his goon squad at a respectful distance from grieving family members.
On a federal level, Congress passed this week and President Bush is expected to sign today a law barring disruptive protests at national military cemeteries. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said the families of fallen veterans have the “right to mourn without being thrust into a political circus.”
For that matter, don’t all grieving families?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
A growing number of Americans rightly accept that global warming is real — and a problem. In fact, 83 percent of Americans believe that global warming will be a serious problem for the nation if nothing is done, a March poll found. Sixty-eight percent want our government to do more about it. But, as this Salon article explains, our political system — combined with the unwillingness of Americans to sacrifice — may be working against us:
“The issue horizon for presidents and members of Congress is the next election, not 2040. Despite all the bleating since the 1980s about the inability of America to pay for the eventual retirement of the baby boomers, the crises of Social Security and Medicare have only gotten worse. In typical short-sighted fashion, the president and Congress approved the prescription-drug bill before the 2004 election without bothering to enact a long-range formula to pay for it. But then George W. Bush and House Speaker Denny Hastert will no longer be in office when the Medicare trust funds become insolvent.”
Most Americans now agree that something needs to be done about global warming. But the test will be actually doing it.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
