Conservative columnist George Will (in photo) predicted Sunday on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” that in six months, the world will be talking far more about Afghanistan than Iraq. And not in a good way. Will noted that the violence in Afghanistan was much worse in 2005 than in 2004, and that it’s on a pace to be still worse in 2006 than in 2005. “There we have very few forces in an extremely large country with an undefeated Taliban,” Will said.
And if Afghanistan spirals out of control, said Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria on the same show, “that presents Bush with an absolutely unsolvable problem, because then the argument becomes very powerful that he underresourced Afghanistan to go into Iraq, making us vulnerable. Because at the end of the day, the guys in Afghanistan are the ones who did 9/11 and who are trying to kill us.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Hillary Clinton has been the leading Democrat for president in every poll but one — but it’s a big one. John Edwards has her beat in Iowa, a new Iowa Poll conducted for The Des Moines Register showed. Thirty percent of Iowans who plan to participate in the 2008 Democratic caucuses said they would vote for Edwards. Clinton came in a close second with 26 percent of the vote. John Kerry and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack trailed behind in third and fourth places. Of course, a lot could change between now and January, but Georgetown University professor Stephen Wayne told The Des Moines Register that Clinton’s second-place finish shouldn’t be ignored. “That should be very encouraging to other Democrats,” he said, “that she’s not a shoo-in.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Conservative preachers and others lamenting the moral depravity of today’s youth and the general breakdown of American society might note some positive news on this front:
Seems that fewer teens are indulging in risky behaviors such as drinking and unprotected sex than teens did 15 years ago, according to a new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And more teens are buckling up, too, when driving.
The news fits with other reported long-range trends: The use of illegal drugs by teens has dropped by 19 percent since 2001, and teen smoking has been cut in half since the late 1990s. America is also witnessing a sharp drop in teen crime and a continued 12-year decline in the teen birth rate.
There is still bad news. But these stats provide some hard evidence that many kids are making good choices and our nation isn’t on the verge of moral collapse.
posted by Randy Scholfield
In a New York Times commentary, former Nebraska senator and governor Bob Kerrey (in photo) shared his take on the Department of Homeland Security’s squirrelly funding cut of 40 percent to New York City, even as cities such as Omaha see increases (which prompted Jon Stewart to joke about “renowned Midwestern terrorist Omaha bin Laden”). After Kerrey scolded the Nebraska bashers and pointed fingers at the department’s funding formula and process, Kerrey argued that “some funds to defend New York City should be included in the annual defense authorization bill” and that all Americans “must indicate we are willing to pay more for our security.” But will they? Or will it take another terrorist attack first?
The next day, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote a commentary headlined, “New York, You’re Still No. 1,” blaming the media and arguing that “these 2006 grants continue a financing stream that places New York and Washington at the very top of the list in terms of money received.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
As she left the White House beat, The New York Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller offered some parting insights that might help those mystified by this administration:
- Though it pretends otherwise, the White House is obsessed with media coverage. “Laura Bush once excoriated me during an interview for something I had written in the last paragraph of a story that you needed a St. Bernard to find in the paper,” Bumiller said.
- Those oft-quoted “Republicans close to the White House” often are “White House-sanctioned leakers — lobbyists, former party officials — who would pass on information West Wing officials wanted out. . . . White House officials then said they had no idea where these terrible leaks were coming from.”
- ‚”Like just about everyone,” the president “can be short-tempered, impatient and brusque.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Upset about the way Katrina victims misused government-issued debit cards to buy Louis Vuitton bags and other inappropriate items, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., seems to be misplacing blame. She has introduced an amendment to a homeland security appropriates bills that states in full: “None of the funds made available to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in this act may be used to purchase a Louis Vuitton handbag.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
