width=”100″ height=”120″ border=”0″ title=”Klinedebate_4″ alt=”Klinedebate_4″ src=”http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/files/images/klinedebate_4.jpg” /> Which is worse: That it’s our state’s top attorney who is running a campaign ad that treats a 15-year-old, unsubstantiated allegation as if it had been proven true? Or that he is also a proud Christian who regularly speaks at churches yet resorts to such sleazy campaign tactics? Either way, Attorney General Phill Kline’s new TV ad is a new low.
View a video excerpt from an Eagle editorial board interview with Kline. The video was taken less than a week before he held a press conference about an old sexual harassment allegation against his opponent, Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison. On the video, Kline says that a lawsuit was settled — implying that there was some settlement to make the case go away. Morrison, his attorney and the plaintiff’s two attorneys all have said that isn’t true. Kline also says on the video that he won’t use the old allegation in his campaign. That didn’t last long.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The White House announced at a press conference Monday that it has stopped using its signature sound-bite, “stay the course.” The reason, spokesman Tony Snow explained, is that the phrase doesn’t reflect the complexity of the administration’s policy about the war in Iraq. So does that mean the White House will stop mischaracterizing critics of its war policies as appeasers who want to “cut and run”?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s good that striking aircraft workers will be getting back to doing what they do best — building aircraft — after union members voted Monday to approve a new contract with Bombardier Aerospace.
The contract offer included, among other incentives, a $1,500 lump-sum bonus for each worker and an extra half-percentage point wage increase in the second and third years of the contract. The deal ends the first work stoppage in the Learjet plant’s history. We hope it’s also the last.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Leaders of Christianity-based political action groups are finally looking beyond opposition to abortion and same-sex unions and are heeding the Christian call to consider the "least of thy brothers."
Christian leaders such as the Rev. Richard Land (in photo) of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, are pressuring President Bush to ease the suffering in the Darfur region of Sudan, the Washington Post reported. The leaders are also taking a closer look at environmental issues.
Some conservative Christians feel that a broader approach threatens their current agenda, which has defined and sustained support. But the new leaders are looking at the younger supporters who are more globally aware.
The new head of the Christian Coalition, the Rev. Joel C. Hunter, is seeking to "rebuild and rebrand" the conservative lobbying group by reaching out to a broader base.
Posted by Angie Holladay
width=”100″ height=”133″ border=”0″ title=”Filmprojector” alt=”Filmprojector” src=”http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/files/images/filmprojector.jpg” /> The Tallgrass Film Festival continues to put down roots in Wichita and make a name for itself nationally with the successful completion of its fourth-annual independent film showcase.
The festival attracted good crowds this year for films such as "Manhattan, Kansas," a by turns searingly painful and funny documentary about a Kansas woman’s reunion with her eccentric, mentally unstable mother.
It’s not typical Hollywood fare — and that’s the point. As the festival showed, there’s an engaging world of independent film out there that gives voice to unsung people and places, including Kansas.
Again this year, Tallgrass impressed visiting filmmakers, one of whom said he was "blown away" by the city’s hospitality.
Festival organizers deserve credit for broadening Wichitans’ cultural horizons.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
An interesting "Boomer Files" link at the MSNBC/Newsweek Web site provides baby boomers a chance to test their knowledge of their growing years from the 1960s through the 1990s. The quiz "Questions of Faith" tests knowledge on topics such as what religious leader the Beatles studied in 1968 (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi). Music trivia includes identifying whom Joni Mitchell (in photo)was singing about in "Free Man in Paris" (David Geffen).
If you don’t respond well, don’t despair. Most boomers seem to score in the 50 percent range for both.
Posted by Angie Holladay
