As has happened several times before, a claim this week that the United States found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq appears to be inaccurate. This time, it was made by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich. (in photo) — who ought to know what he is talking about. But according to intelligence officials, these WMDs were actually some chemical weapons shells that had been manufactured before the 1991 Gulf War and, for the most part, were badly deteriorated and unusable. The shells’ existence was already known, the officials said, and does not change the government’s conclusion that Iraq didn’t have WMDs.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The indictments of seven men who reportedly aspired to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and several federal buildings in Miami is another reminder that terrorists don’t just come from other countries. Five of the men were U.S. nationals “who for whatever reason came to view their home country as the enemy,” Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Friday. The men allegedly were terrorist wannabes, who were seeking financial and logistical help from al-Qaida.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Thanks again to all of you who attended the meet-up Thursday night. A good time was had by all — especially by the editorial staff. I appreciate your suggestions for how to improve the blog. If you think of other ideas, please let me know.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Did you catch Charlie Rose’s interview with Al Gore on PBS Monday night? It focused on global warming and Gore’s new movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.” But Gore also argued that there is a self-destructive connection between global warming, the war in Iraq and our national debt. “We are borrowing huge amounts of money from China to buy huge amounts of oil from the most unstable region on the planet, to bring it here and burn it in ways that destroy the habitability of the planet,” Gore said. “This is a dysfunctional pattern, every component of which has to be changed, and can be changed only when we look at the overall pattern.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s good that the Wichita City Council is working to strike a balance between keeping people in touch through cell phones and keeping Wichita’s skyline open and uncluttered. Council members this week turned down a cell tower at 21st Street and Maize Road that was opposed by a majority of area residents; at the same time, they invited wireless industry representatives to meet and discuss ways to provide technology upgrades without creating eyesores.
The city needs good cell phone coverage, but it also should carefully site and camouflage those towers to avoid, as much as possible, technological clutter.
With some careful planning, city officials should be able to meet both goals.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Republicans have a canny way of turning simple phrases into effective weapons for their cause. The latest is “cut and run” — which came up repeatedly in the House’s Iraq debate last week and again Wednesday before the Senate rejected Democrats’ proposed timetable for troop withdrawal. “What it says is, ‘You’re a coward,’ and moreover it presupposes that the opposite is to stand and fight,” George Lakoff, a linguist at the University of California-Berkeley, told The Boston Globe. “Then they repeat it over and over until it becomes part of people’s brains. The Democrats haven’t learned to do that.” And their attempt to do it with the phrase “culture of corruption” was corrupted by their own Rep. William “Cold Cash” Jefferson, D-La.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The following satirical headlines come from the Web site borowitzreport.com:
ROVE, SATAN PLOT G.O.P. FALL STRATEGY; White House Adviser, Prince of Darkness Resume Longtime Collaboration
BRAD PITT TO GET DENTAL CHECKUP IN NAMIBIA; X-Rays to Be Sold for Charity
GORE FILM BECOMES MAKE-OUT MOVIE OF THE SUMMER; Global Warming Means Hot Loving at the Multiplex
AL-QAIDA CHOOSES ZARQAWI’S SUCCESSOR ON REALITY SHOW; ‘Jihadist Idol’ Debuts on Al-Jazeera
ANN COULTER CHALLENGES PRESIDENT OF IRAN TO INSANE COMMENT CONTEST; Conservative Pundit, Iranian Madman to Face Off on Live TV
IRAN TRYING TO OBTAIN PARIS HILTON’S ALBUM; Claims It Will Be Used For ‘Peaceful Purposes’
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
