“Can anyone really imagine seeing what those firefighters saw — first one plane, then another — and saying, ‘Goodness gracious, what rare deed is this?’ when ‘What the –’ more accurately captures the moment?” columnist Kathleen Parker asks on today’s Opinion pages. She was responding to the misguided vow by the American Family Association to flood the Federal Communications Commission with complaints if CBS stations air the documentary “9/11,” which contains some cursing (it’s scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Sunday on KWCH, Channel 12 in Wichita). “Surely the American Family Association’s biblical ethics leave some wiggle room for common sense and context,” Parker argued. “Besides, children too young to hear raw language are far too young to watch something as horrifying as the mass murder that took place on Sept. 11.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Why did President Bush finally admit Wednesday — almost five years after Sept. 11 — that, yes, the U.S. government has been holding terrorism prisoners in secret locations? Did he announce it now to put pressure on Congress to approve procedures for putting terrorists on trial? Or to remind Americans, just before the November elections, of the dangers we’re facing? Or was he respectfully following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling about the treatment of detainees? Or it is just that the CIA is done interrogating the terrorists and wants to dump them at Guantanamo Bay? Whatever the reason, it is good that Bush decided to bring the terrorists and the secret program, as he put it, “into the open.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The latest Rasmussen Reports poll numbers on the Kansas governor’s race — with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius at 48 percent and GOP challenger Jim Barnett at 37 percent — leave a tough gap for Barnett to close in nine weeks. Of those polled, 35 percent view Sebelius “very favorably” and 32 percent “strongly approve” of her performance, while 19 percent view Barnett “very favorably” and he’s still an unknown to 18 percent. Another problem for Barnett: 39 percent of voters think he’s a conservative, 24 percent say he’s a moderate, and 28 percent are “not sure.”
But in reporting on the poll, Rasmussen Reports makes an observation that suggests a bigger-name Republican might have found it easier to deny the Democrat a second term: Her support has yet to rise above 50 percent in Rasmussen’s polls, and “her popularity — fairly high even with GOP voters — isn’t being translated into the safer levels of support that widely liked incumbents have attracted elsewhere.”
So there is some truth to Barnett campaign manager Christian Morgan’s contention that “this should quiet the notion that she’s unbeatable.” But is she beatable by Barnett?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Many will sympathize with the anger that Reform Party candidate Richard Ranzau and Libertarian Party candidate Carl Kramer feel at being excluded from upcoming gubernatorial forums. They will be on the Nov. 7 ballot, alongside Democratic incumbent Kathleen Sebelius and GOP nominee Jim Barnett, and they have ideas to offer voters. But inviting Ranzau, a physician assistant in Wichita and an Iraq war veteran, and Kramer, an assembly worker at Spirit AeroSystems and frequent local candidate, to participate would be more polite than productive. But with only four or five chances for Kansans to hear the major party candidates face off, it would be a waste of precious time to open these events to candidates who’ve raised a reported $1,433.86 between them. Gubernatorial candidate forums are best reserved for contenders.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
What issues should the GOP-led Congress focus on in hopes of retaining the majority? Here are the Wall Street Journal editorial board’s suggestions:
Rewrite the rules for military tribunals for terrorists.
Create more transparency for special-interest budget “earmarks,” and grant the president line-item veto authority.
Approve rules to allow small businesses and associations to offer lower-cost health insurance.
Expand drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, and pass faster permitting for new gas refineries.
Block federal dollars from financing local projects invoking eminent domain, and push floor votes for more judicial nominees.
Make permanent the tax cuts, and repeal the estate tax.
The editorial board added: “We’d also mention immigration reform, except that House leaders tell us there is zero chance of that passing before November. Leave it to Republicans to fan national concern about the issue for a year and then say, well, never mind.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
