Some not-so-fun facts noted by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd this week, in the wake of the deaths in Baghdad of a CBS soundman and cameraman and the critical injury of CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier (in photo): 71 journalists have been killed in Iraq, more than the number killed in Vietnam or World War II. And the Iraq war is “now six months short of the United States involvement in World War II.”
To those who complain about media’s refusal to report Iraq’s good news, Dowd recounts what CBS correspondent Lara Logan recently told CNN: that the U.S. military rejects her pitches for upbeat stories, saying, “Oh, sorry, we can’t take you to that school project, because if you put that on TV, they’re going to be attacked, the teachers are going to be killed, the children might be the victims of attack. Oh, sorry, we can’t show this reconstruction project because then that’s going to expose it to sabotage.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Here are some tunes to get the party started — the Republican Party. National Review’s list of the “50 greatest conservative rock songs” takes some labeling liberties and covers a lot of musical ground, from the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (No. 1) to Blink 182′s “Stay Together for the Kids” (No. 17) to Aerosmith’s “Janie’s Got a Gun” (No. 28) to Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55″ (No. 38) to Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man” (No. 50).
Posted by Rhonda Holman
An overlooked (deliberately?) change in the Senate immigration bill is that it would dramatically increase legal immigration. Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson reported: “By rough projections, the Senate bill would double the legal immigration that would occur during the next two decades from about 20 million (under present law) to about 40 million.” He noted that the change is at odds with a recent Pew Research Center poll, in which only 17 percent of the public favored in increased level of legal immigration. But his biggest complaint is that the issue hasn’t been openly debated, either by politicians or the media.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Maybe Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is right that a heads-up to House leadership could have avoided the constitutional crisis over the FBI raid on the Capitol Hill office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., related to a bribery investigation. But unlike the many in an uproar over the search, Roberts also understands that members of Congress must not be above the law. “During these times with public concern about ethics and misdeeds, it’s extremely important that you prove the point,” Roberts said Tuesday in Topeka. “We’re not an imperial body.” And thank the founders for that.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Despite the new peace agreement, the situation is Darfur remains desperate — but mostly because of pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria, not Arab militias. “Local and international aid organizations here are trying to stave off these deaths, but their ranks are shrinking,” The New York Times reported. “They take care of 2.5 million people driven from their homes and farms with a diminishing pool of money as donors, particularly in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, have not sent all the money they pledged to Darfur. Beyond that, they work under tight restrictions imposed by Sudanese officials and face attacks by combatants who hijack their vehicles and menace their workers.” The international community must act — which includes following through on its pledges.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
To its credit, the Bush administration is newly willing to be part of multilateral direct talks with Iran on its nuclear program, 27 years after the hostage crisis severed diplomatic ties. Many U.S. allies and others, including congressional Republicans, had urged direct talks. But the diplomatic shift has a likely deal breaker: The United States won’t come to the table until “Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities,” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Fat chance. The hope must be that President Bush’s incremental show of good faith will inspire Iran to show some of its own, so that talks can get started and a nuclear Iran can be avoided.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Wichita City Council took a substantial step toward making the city more bike-friendly by approving a study of trails in the area. The federally funded, yearlong project should identify gaps in the bike path system and suggest ways to improve it. The desired result — better and more complete trails — would benefit cyclists and the community as a whole. But with rising gas prices, a growing number of people are using bicycles for more than recreation. The city should keep this in mind as it goes forward, and also look at ways to make our streets safer for cyclists just trying to get from Point A to Point B.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
