In reacting to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision, President Bush said he thought “there is a way forward with military tribunals in working with the United States Congress.” How Congress and voters respond will determine a lot, Walter Shapiro argues:
“Significant as this ruling is, decisions like Hamdan do not by themselves instantly transform behavior as if they were a fiat from Mount Sinai. Their broader implications are bound to be tested in the courts and challenged by the administration. If Congress and the voters lack the political will to act on the Hamdan precedent, then Thursday’s decision will probably be remembered as a momentary flicker of judicial independence in the era of a ‘laws only apply to little people’ presidency.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Spirit AeroSystems’ plan to go public is an impressive measure of how well the former Boeing division has done since last year’s traumatic purchase by Canada’s Onex Corp. and optimistic reinvention as a new company. The planned initial public offering also is the latest indicator of the renewed vigor of Wichita’s aviation manufacturing, which seems at last to have emerged from its turn-of-the-century slump. Now, as this major industry supplier continues to grow and serve Wichita’s economy, it will newly serve shareholders.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It’s been difficult to determine how much of the concern about electronic voting machine security is legitimate and how much of it is a left-wing conspiracy theory. But a report released this week by New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice argues that the systems aren’t secure, and that one person with access and the technological skill can change an election. The report says that most of the vulnerabilities could be overcome by auditing printed voting records to spot irregularities — but most states don’t require that. Voting machine manufacturers dismissed the report as theoretical, but even some GOP lawmakers have become convinced that attempts to manipulate election results are inevitable. Said Thomas Davis, R-Va.: “It’s not a question of ‘if,’ it’s a question of ‘when.’ “
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., thinks Democrats should reach out to churchgoing Americans, saying that if Democrats “don’t reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons will continue to hold sway.” Obama, who along with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and other Democrats spoke at “progressive evangelical” conference this week, also rightly cautioned that Democrats should not make phony attempts to connect with evangelicals: “Nothing is more transparent than inauthentic expressions of faith: the politician who shows up at a black church around election time and claps — off rhythm — to the gospel choir.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., is famous for his tart tongue. Still, his startling dismissal of the vice president Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer” reflected the degree of partisan hostility on Iraq. After a video clip in which Vice President Cheney called the Democrats’ proposal “packing it in, going home, persuading and convincing and validating the theory that the Americans don’t have the stomach for this fight,” Blitzer said, “All right. You want to respond to the vice president, Sen. Biden?”
To which Biden said, “No, I don’t want to respond to him. He’s at 20 percent in the polls. No one listens to him. He has no credibility. It’s ridiculous.” Biden went on to say that Iraqis are going to demand that U.S. troops leave, and wondered, “What’s the political solution here?”
Good question, but can one emerge from such an atmosphere of partisanship?
Meanwhile, Biden also made some news this week when he said that, though he would like to be president, he isn’t hung up on the trappings of the office. “I would rather go home to Delaware and make love to my wife,” he said. Jay Leno later joked that Bill Clinton said the same thing — that he would rather be home making love to Biden’s wife.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Bush administration’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees before military commissions violates both military law and the Geneva Conventions, the Supreme Court ruled today. The finding could have a lasting and far-reaching impact, The Washington Post reported, because it dealt with:
* “The power of Congress and the executive to strip the federal courts and the Supreme Court of jurisdiction.
* “The authority of the executive to lock up individuals under claims of wartime power, without benefit of traditional protections such as a jury trial, the right to cross-examine one’s accusers and the right to judicial appeal.
*‚”The applicability of international treaties — specifically the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war — to the government’s treatment of those it deems ‘enemy combatants.’”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
In terms of how the new Iraq is going to find its way forward, it makes sense for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to seek a way to make some kind of peace with the insurgency. And peace might necessitate some kind of forgiveness. That is why Maliki’s new 24-point national reconciliation plan proposes amnesty, though only to “those not proven involved in crimes, terrorist activities and war crimes against humanity.” In a televised address Wednesday, he stressed that “will exclude fighters who killed Iraqis or soldiers of the multinational forces.” But could the Iraqi government be sure it doesn’t give amnesty to any insurgents with American blood on their hands? And how much should the United States meddle in this important step?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Line-item veto authority won’t balance the federal budget, but it could be a useful tool in helping curb pork barrel spending. So the Senate should follow the House’s lead and give President Bush and future presidents the authority to veto provisions in a spending bill without vetoing the entire measure.
As Bush noted in calling for such authority this week, line-item vetoes would “shine the light of day on spending items that get passed in the dark of the night” and send “a healthy signal to the people that we’re going to be wise about how we spend their money.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
In a landmark report, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona (in photo) this week sent the strongest ever warning about the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke: It’s a killer.
“The debate is over. The science is clear: Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance, but a serious health hazard,” he said this week.
He cited “overwhelming scientific evidence” that tens of thousands of Americans die each year from lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses as a result of “involuntary smoking” — and children who live with parental smokers are especially at risk for a range of health problems.
The report should give new momentum to those seeking smoke-free public places in Kansas and Wichita.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that state lawmakers may draw new maps of congressional districts anytime they want, rather than just once a decade as the Constitution requires and has been standard practice. As a result, expect state legislatures to redraw the maps whenever they think it might benefit the majority party, as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay orchestrated in Texas.
Rather than having politicians in charge of redistricting, which results in crazy quilt districts aimed a protecting incumbents, more states should follow the lead of Iowa, which has a legislative service bureau draw its map.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
More and more Americans may finally be ready to do something about global warming. That’s the thinking behind DaimlerChrysler’s 2008 release of its Smart mini-car in the United States. The company had shelved an earlier plan to do just that, but a company executive told The New York Times, “Now is the right time to go to the U.S. The world, and the U.S., has changed in the last two years.” That change is also evident in Wichita, where the June 29 screening of Al Gore’s movie about global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” filled up well in advance and left organizers with a 60-person waiting list. “People are gradually starting to think, ‘What can I do?’” said Elizabeth Bishop of the Sierra Club Kansas Chapter.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Wednesday’s guilty verdict in the capital case of Greg Moore was no surprise, given the dramatic testimony about the standoff and shoot-out last April that left Harvey County Deputy Sheriff Kurt Ford dead and Hesston police Detective Chris Eilert wounded in Newton. This heartbreaking case, like the murder of Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels before it, has reminded all Kansans of the daily dangers faced by law enforcement in communities large and small, and of the gratitude we owe these courageous public servants.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., was among the many GOP no-shows at an important Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday — on President Bush’s use of signing statements 750 times to flex his executive power and signal his disdain for all or parts of laws he has signed. Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is so concerned about the practice that he’s thinking Congress might sue the president over the dismissive statements.
Meanwhile, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michelle Boardman argued that Bush has shown Congress respect by using the statements rather than vetoing whole bills. “Respect for the legislative branch, when we have a well-crafted bill, the majority of which is constitutional, is shown when the president chooses to construe a particular statement in keeping with the Constitution, as opposed to defeating an entire bill that would serve the nation,” she said.
So let’s use an example to see if we understand this correctly. Bush argues that Congress shouldn’t outlaw torture. Congress considers his arguments, rejects them, and overwhelmingly passes the ban. Bush holds a press conference and says he supports the ban. But then Bush quietly adds a signing statement saying he has the power to ignore the ban. This is respecting Congress?
As Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., noted during Tuesday’s hearing: “This administration has said, even with a rubber-stamp Republican Congress, they don’t care what we think. They’re going to decide what laws to follow and what laws to disobey, and . . . nobody up here will call them on it.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
On Tuesday the Senate rejected, by one vote, a constitutional amendment to prohibit flag desecration. The words of Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii — a World War II veteran and Medal of Honor winner — bear repeating: “Our country’s unique because our dissidents have a voice. While I take offense at disrespect to the flag, I nonetheless believe it is my continued duty as a veteran, as an American citizen and as a United States senator to defend the constitutional right of protesters to use the flag in nonviolent speech.” Kansas Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts both voted for the ban.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Many Americans who were skeptical about the need to invade Iraq were reassured after then-Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the case to the United Nations Security Council in February 2003. After all, if Powell thought Iraq posed a real and present danger, then it must be true. But it turns out that a key claim in his U.N. presentation was opposed by top intelligence officials. In reviewing the speech beforehand for errors, Tyler Drumheller, who was the CIA’s European operations chief, crossed out the claim about Iraq building mobile biological labs for germ warfare, because he knew the source of the claim was a discredited Iraqi defector named Curveball, The Washington Post reported. Yet the claim still was included in Powell’s speech.
How did that happen? In part, it was because then-CIA Director George Tenet personally vouched for the accuracy of the mobile-lab claim, the Post reported. The labs were never found, and Tenet later received a Medal of Freedom.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Our editorial Sunday noted that The Eagle editorial board met separately last week with Attorney General Phill Kline and his Republican-turned-Democrat challenger, Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison. This is the race to watch this fall, and they both made clear that they will be swinging.
Kline is pursuing the same game plan that worked well for him in the 2002 GOP primary — attacking his opponent for supporting Senate Bill 323, a 2000 sentencing reform law that, Kline says, put more criminals on the street, some of whom later committed brutal crimes. But Morrison isn’t ready to concede the tough-on-crime prize. “I’ve got a 26-year history of putting bad guys in jail,” he said. He argues that the race “is about competence, and it’s about focus.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Mayor Carlos Mayans says he’s getting undeserved heat for floating proposals in support of the Museum of World Treasures, Wichita State University football and other projects.
He told The Eagle editorial board that he sees his role as starting a “community dialogue” on important topics, and that he doesn’t consider his ideas the final word.
He also faulted his fellow City Council members for their unwillingness to venture ideas. “Not doing anything is a decision,” he said, “and silence is not an idea.”
So why is the mayor being unusually silent about how to keep the Wranglers baseball team in Wichita?
He said he’s deliberately staying quiet on this issue, forcing his fellow council members to come up with ideas — to “teach them a little lesson about leadership.”
No doubt they appreciate it.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
President Bush on Monday added to his administration’s criticism of The New York Times for reporting about the government’s surveillance of international banking records, calling the story “disgraceful.” “We’re at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm to the United States of America,” Bush said.
Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, countered the administration’s main arguments against printing the story. In response to the argument that exposing the program would cause international bankers to quit participating in it, Keller said: “We don’t know what the banking consortium will do, but we found this argument puzzling. First, the bankers provide this information under the authority of a subpoena, which imposes a legal obligation. Second, if, as the administration says, the program is legal, highly effective, and well protected against invasion of privacy, the bankers should have little trouble defending it.”
And in response to the administration’s argument that exposing the program would cause terrorists to change tactics, Keller said that the terror financiers already know that the United States is taking every measure to follow the money. “But,” he wrote, “they also continue to use the international banking system, because it is immeasurably more efficient than toting suitcases of cash.”
Treasury Secretary John Snow dismissed Keller’s defense as “incorrect and offensive,” but Keller was right to point out that the founders “rejected the idea that it is wise, or patriotic, to always take the president at his word, or to surrender to the government important decisions about what to publish.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans’ push to bring back Wichita State University football is the political equivalent of a Hail Mary pass: It generates some excitement and raises hopes but likely isn’t going to put points on the scoreboard.
WSU football could make sense under the right circumstances, but it’s also a risky venture — and WSU president Donald Beggs is right to be wary of it.
And talk about bad timing: It seems odd that the mayor is working so hard to convince WSU to add a program it doesn’t want at the same time Wichita is in danger of losing the Wranglers baseball team.
Where is the City Council leadership on that issue?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Democrats aren’t happy about having been portrayed as cut-and-run cowards during a Senate debate last week about troop levels in Iraq — especially when the U.S. commander in Iraq reportedly also supports a significant troop pullout. Gen. George W. Casey proposed last week that the number of American combat brigades in Iraq decrease to five or six from the current level of 14 by December 2007, The New York Times reported.
“That means the only people who have fought us and fought us against the timetable, the only ones still saying there shouldn’t be a timetable, really are the Republicans in the United States Senate and in the Congress,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
It also shows again, despite all the rhetoric, that there isn’t that much difference between the positions of most Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Investor Warren Buffett’s decision to give $30 billion of his estate to his friend Bill Gates’ charitable foundation — doubling its assets — creates the largest philanthropic fund in history.
The money will give even more clout to Gates’ efforts to fight global disease and poverty and, on the home front, improve U.S. high schools and libraries.
The staggering amount of money involved signals a new golden age of philanthropy. To put it in perspective: The $60 billion Gates fund is five times bigger than the Ford Foundation, the next largest private charity. The United Nations, by comparison, spends about $12 billion annually, according to The Wall Street Journal.
And the fund exceeds some of the most generous charitable giving of the past: Andrew Carnegie’s $380 million in giving, adjusted for inflation, is worth $7.6 billion today.
Let’s hope it is spent wisely, and that other rich Americans follow Buffett’s and Gates’ lead. Buffett told Fortune magazine that he agreed with Carnegie that “huge fortunes that flow in large part from society should in large part be returned to society.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The rising cost of tuition at Kansas’ public universities hasn’t drawn much criticism. But was the Kansas Board of Regents’ latest hike one too many? It means in-state undergrads will pay between 4.6 percent and 16.7 percent more this fall — 15 class hours at Wichita State University will cost $2,258, up from $1,204 a decade ago. As our editorial Monday noted, “state funding of universities is now at 29 percent of their budgets, compared with 48 percent in 1991. Without much accountability, lawmakers have slowly but surely shifted more of the burden of funding the operation of these crucial state assets to students and private donors. And how long will the ‘it’s a bargain’ approach work?”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
On this blog, we recently lamented the absence of a colorful, interesting third-party candidate for Kansas governor, like songster-turned-politico Kinky Friedman in Texas.
Bob Knight to the rescue. The former Wichita mayor announced last week that he will consider — he’s resisting the idea, mind you — an independent bid this year if enough supporters demand his candidacy.
That’s a big “if,” considering Knight’s lackluster showing in the 2002 race — he finished a distant third in the GOP primary, which was won by Tim Shallenburger. Back then, there was talk of a Knight petition drive and an independent bid — but nothing came of it.
It’s a long shot now, too, but Knight’s entry would boost Wichita’s profile and at least liven up the debate about Kansas’ future.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
