President Bush’s Sept. 11 commemorative speech Monday night sounded pretty much the same themes, in the same phrases, as speeches he gave two or three years ago.
He sounded the right notes about Sept. 11 — we’ve heard them before — but then he shifted to defending the war on Iraq as the central front in the war on terror. The problem: A majority of Americans no longer agree with that fundamental premise of Bush’s anti-terror strategy.
In a recent CNN poll, 53 percent of Americans didn’t think that the war in Iraq is part of the war on terrorism. That’s probably because more Americans today understand that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with Sept. 11 (as the president now admits), and that the bloody sectarian civil war in Iraq is more complicated than Bush’s rhetoric that “the safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.”
Further, when Bush says “America did not ask for this war,” Americans know that doesn’t apply to Iraq.
With so much going wrong on the ground (see yet another gloomy assessment from a top Marine intelligence officer), with so many pointing out the administration’s past misstatements and false predictions, Bush’s speech is unlikely to remedy a growing credibility problem.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to live his Hollywood role, but this time as an invincible politician. Amazingly, he once again charmed himself out of a political faux pas, apologizing to the public and the subject of his remarks at a news conference Friday. Schwarzenegger had been tape-recorded with his advisers during a speech-writing session discussing whether state Sen. Bonnie Garcia’s heritage is Cuban or Puerto Rican. The Los Angeles Times quoted the governor as saying, “I mean Cuban, Puerto Rican, they are all very hot. . . . They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it.”
Appearing at the news conference alongside the governor, New York native Garcia, born to Puerto Rican parents, claimed she took no offense to the comments.
But Schwarzenegger needs to watch his “off the record” comments as he approaches a November re-election bid, or he may find his silver tongue heading back to the silver screen.
Posted by Angie Holladay
Blaming his opponent for the Carr brothers’ spree killings in Wichita in 2000 worked well for then-candidate Phill Kline in the 2002 GOP primary for Kansas attorney general, so Kline surely thinks the same tactic will prove effective this year against his Democratic challenger, Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison. Trouble is, Kline is being less than honest in contending that Senate Bill 323, which Morrison supported prior to its 2000 passage, is responsible for the fact that Reginald Carr was free rather than behind bars in December 2000. The Kansas Department of Corrections long ago determined that Carr was released from supervision because of a clerical error, not “released early by Morrison’s bill,” as a Kline fundraising letter put it.
It’s fair for Kline to take issue with Morrison’s support for the law generally, which Kline criticizes as having let serious criminals out of jail, but Kline crosses the line in trying to pin the Carr brothers’ crimes on Morrison — something he may try again at the debate with Morrison at 7 p.m. Thursday at Wichita State University’s Hughes Metropolitan Complex, 29th Street North and Oliver. Besides, the Republican’s ire is best directed at the 137 lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Legislature who overwhelmingly passed Senate Bill 323 in the 2000 session.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Responding to “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert, Vice President Dick Cheney insisted that he would do “exactly the same thing” today in invading Iraq, even knowing, as we know now, that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction stockpiled.
I suppose he has to say that. Still, it’s amazing to hear, as President Bush has said before, that this administration would do exactly the same thing in taking out Saddam.
So what was all the prewar debate about WMDs for? Guess the cynics were right who said the Bush team had already made up its mind to go to war with Iraq, imminent threat or not, congressional approval or not.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
A school resource officer’s quick actions last week defused an explosive situation at East High School, proving again why these officers are so valuable in our schools. Officer John Biagini acted decisively when he spotted several juveniles getting out of a car Friday, some armed with baseball bats; he called for backup help and made six arrests, averting what could have been an ugly fight.
As Wichita schools spokeswoman Wendy Johnson said, “He did exactly what they’re here to do.”
SROs in schools benefit the entire community and help protect our kids. The city of Wichita and the school district need to put aside their bickering and find a way to fund them on a long-term basis.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Some are newly raising questions about the true power of al-Qaida five years after the terrorists attacks. But in a commentary in the Kansas City Star, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., paints the terrorist threat in the most dire of terms, noting that “the Islamofascists have promised to fight until they gain control of the entire world.” He said the United States must, among other things, “counter Islamofascist ideology wherever it emerges, be it from the caves of northern Pakistan, the mullahs in Tehran, or the mosque that preaches violence in Europe and the United States. We should have no tolerance for those who authorize murder and glorify death.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
In response to an Eagle article about a Hutchinson waitress who received a $10,000 tip, a reader anonymously sent The Eagle a missive on behalf of local servers that offered some thoughts about tipping.
Among the points:
– Telling a server he is the best is not a tip. If servers are good, let them know by leaving more money. “We can’t pay our bills on compliments.”
– It is not 1960. The cost of living has gone up dramatically since then. Eighteen percent is the minimum amount of what you should be tipping your servers.
– If you feel the necessity to stay for longer than 15 minutes after you pay, tip more. “We make our money from the tables. If you are in one and we can’t seat it, we can’t make money.”
The reality is, most servers never see $10,000 tips. If you can afford to go out to eat, then you can afford to tip decently.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
