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Monthly Archives: October 2006
What’s in the GOP’s DNA?
Oct. 27, 20061:03 a.m.
President Bush’s suggestion Tuesday that Democrats are “genetically disposed” to raise taxes naturally leads to thoughts of what Republicans are “genetically disposed” to do. Any suggestions?
To get the ideas flowing, here’s the snappy comeback of Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who is in charge of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: “George Bush sure has a lot to say for a guy who added $3 trillion to the nation’s debt.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Gaming Google: a new way to go negative
Oct. 27, 20061:02 a.m.
Google puts a world of information at your fingertips, but when it’s election season, let the searcher beware.
The New York Times reports on the new phenomenon of “Google bombing,” whereby activists manipulate the search engine by flooding the Web with negative references to candidates and repeatedly cross-linking to specific articles and sites.
The liberal blog group MyDD.com (Direct Democracy) has targeted about 50 Republican candidates this way. Thus, a search on Arizona Sen. John Kyl will return, high on the page, a highly critical piece by an alternative weekly in Phoenix.
Very clever — but it’s a two-edged sword. No doubt Republicans are crafting a suitable response.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Never miss a good chance to shut up
Oct. 27, 20061:01 a.m.
Humorist Will Rogers died 71 years ago, but some of his one liners still ring true today, especially in these waning days leading up to elections. ChronWatch posted a few of his insightful musings:
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
Never miss a good chance to shut up.
There are three kinds of men: ones that learn by reading, few who learn by observation, and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you’re full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
Posted by Angie Holladay
WE Blog wouldn’t fly in China
Oct. 27, 20061:00 a.m.
As blogging enters the world’s most populous country, the Internet Society of China has recommended to the government that people use their real names when they register blogs. The current blog system does allow Internet chatter not permitted under the traditional state-run media. The proposal would require bloggers to register their real names, but they would still be allowed to write under a pseudonym.
The society reported that bloggers anonymously spreading false information had brought a negative influence.
Posted by Angie Holladay
Even accuser says there was no settlement
Oct. 26, 200612:44 p.m.
It’s official. Everyone who was involved in a 15-year-old sexual harassment lawsuit against Paul Morrison has said there was no settlement to end it. Morrison said that. So did his attorney. So did the woman’s attorney. And now, so does the woman. In an interview with a Kansas City, Mo., TV station, Kelly Summerlin said there was no settlement, either monetary or nonmonetary.
So now, all those in the Kline camp are left with is arguing that by claiming there was a settlement, they were just referring to the agreement to dismiss the case. Please. Next, they’ll start debating the definition of “is.”
Ironically, Kline’s claims and dirty campaign ad have shown why Morrison is the best candidate.
If a 15-year-old, unproven accusation is the best Kline can come up with to try to tarnish his opponent’s sterling reputation, Morrison must really be impressive. And if our state’s top attorney treats unsubstantiated allegations as if they had been proved true, it’s time for a better attorney.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Candidates don’t need help slinging mud
Oct. 26, 200612:41 p.m.
As if the campaigns of attorney general candidates Phill Kline and Paul Morrison weren’t bad enough, now outside groups have launched their own negative advertising. Great.
A group called “Kansans for Consumer Privacy Protection” — which appears to be connected to the ProKanDo abortion rights political action committee — sent out mailings claiming that “Snoop Dog Kline” wants to invade our privacy. The Republican State Leadership Committee — a Washington, D.C.-based group that apparently is funded by corporate special interests — ran TV ads claiming that Morrison is soft on crime. No doubt more shadowy, third-party groups will join in before Election Day.
But the candidates have shown themselves more than capable of slinging mud. They don’t need outside help.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
With an eye on ‘08, Clinton spends big
Oct. 26, 20061:04 a.m.
Forget about Republicans vs. Democrats in 2008. The most interesting race between now and then might well turn out to be Clinton vs. Obama.
While Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has just signaled an interest in running, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is signaling her own interest in a different way: by spending nearly $7 million last month in a Senate re-election campaign where she already holds a 32-point lead and almost nobody has heard of her opponent.
As this story in the Hill newspaper points out, Clinton wants a landslide to show she can appeal to a wide range of voters, and to refute critics who say she’s too polarizing to beat a moderate Republican in 2008.
The same strategy appeared to work for George W. Bush in 1998, when he outspent his opponent 4-to-1 to win re-election as Texas governor.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Olathe like living in the Big Apple
Oct. 26, 20061:03 a.m.
Living the good life in Kansas just reached a new milestone with the New York Times report of new census data showing the percentage of income needed to pay rent in Olathe was higher than in New York City. Olathe also had the biggest jump in the percentage of people paying at least 30 percent of their income on rent, as well as in those paying at least 50 percent on rent, the paper reported.
The population of Olathe is growing at a rate of 4,000 per year, which has driven up housing prices. Housing has doubled in the past five years, with the average home now selling at $350,000. Builders also aren’t building enough apartments and duplexes, which is keeping rental prices sky-high.
Posted by Angie Holladay
Get started fighting blight
Oct. 26, 20061:02 a.m.
Speaking of housing, but on the other end of the scale: How would you like to live next door to blight? As an Eagle article Saturday showed, it can take years for city inspectors to resolve cases involving run-down, eyesore properties. In one example, a home that burned two years ago still sits empty and boarded up, attracting trash and vandalism.
Granted, the process can be complicated because of due-process concerns. But the patience of nearby homeowners is wearing thin — and you can’t blame them.
The city is seeking tougher fines and code enforcement rules, and that’s welcome. One goal should be speedier resolutions of worst-case properties. As Wichita City Council member Jim Skelton said of the sometimes years-long delays: “It’s wrong. It’s unacceptable.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Honor Dockum civil rights pioneers
Oct. 26, 20061:01 a.m.
The young African-Americans who in 1958 staged a sit-in at the Dockum Drugs lunch counter didn’t know it, but they were making history. It’s time for Wichita to honor that history.
As a recent reunion of participants revealed, the Dockum sit-in — perhaps the first protest of its kind in the nation — helped end segregation locally and establish a strategy of nonviolent resistance in the civil rights movement. Only in recent years have historians begun to recognize the importance of their achievement.
Now a group of Wichita youths is circulating a petition to honor the Dockum protests by renaming Reflection Square Park after Chester I. Lewis (in photo), local leader of the NAACP at the time.
How fitting — the “pocket park” on Douglas Avenue downtown, once the site of a Woolworth’s, already features a prominent lunch-counter sculpture in tribute to Wichita’s Dockum sit-in.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Gore supports Prop 87, but his staff may not
Oct. 26, 20061:00 a.m.
Ex-vice president and environmental crusader Al Gore appeared at a rally in California to lend his support for Proposition 87, an initiative targeted toward oil companies. If it passes Nov. 7, oil companies will be taxed on oil taken from California, and charged billions to produce alternative energy sources to reduce California’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Gore arrived to the rally in his eco-friendly “100 miles per gallon” Toyota Prius hybrid, but his entourage followed in two limousines and a Dodge Ram pickup truck. They may not be so excited about leaving the style and comfort for alternative fuel vehicles.
Posted by Angie Holladay
Iraq’s leader sends the wrong signal
Oct. 25, 200611:19 a.m.
For those still wondering when Iraqi forces will “stand up” so U.S. forces can “stand down,” an answer came Wednesday: Don’t hold your breath.
With U.S. help, Iraqi forces raided the stronghold of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose ragtag Mahdi Army is thought to be running death squads in Baghdad. Before the smoke had cleared, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki disavowed the operation, saying he had not been consulted and insisting “it will not be repeated.”
Since he already had the microphone, Maliki also condemned talk of a timetable for when Iraqi forces might take a lead security role: “This government represents the will of the people, and no one has the right to impose a timetable on it.”
Given Maliki’s tenuous rule in the Green Zone, both points are debatable. But it’s hard to see how Iraqi forces will ever stand up if their commander in chief keeps telling them to sit down.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Offensive Rush to judgment on Fox’s ads
Oct. 25, 200611:16 a.m.
Rush Limbaugh rightly apologized for accusing Michael J. Fox of “exaggerating the effects” of his Parkinson’s disease in the political ads he’s done for Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill and others related to his advocacy of federal funding for stem-cell research. “Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting, one of the two,” Limbaugh said Monday of Fox’s visible symptoms of the disease. But the comment was “jaw-dropping,” as McCaskill said. “Only in politics would somebody find a way to criticize what Michael J. Fox has done.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Time to change course in Iraq
Oct. 25, 20061:03 a.m.
President Bush has been sending signals of late that he’s “flexible” on changing the strategy in Iraq — at the same time, he seems to be ruling out most options, including a phased withdrawal, troop buildup or partition of Iraq.
One Bush idea being floated would give the Iraqi government target dates for achieving certain goals, such as disarming militias.
But how would such timelines exert any influence on the Iraqis without real leverage, such as the threat of troop withdrawal?
The fact is, the United States doesn’t have any good options in Iraq. But there is a growing bipartisan sense that we can’t “stay the course” — which is no doubt why the White House has now stopped using the term. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Monday that Iraq is “on the verge of chaos,” and the current plan “is not working.”
A new U.S. strategy has to fully face that reality with a bold course correction.
First step: Fire Donald Rumsfeld.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
You can count me out, but not Hillary
Oct. 25, 20061:02 a.m.
At least one seasoned Republican political analyst thinks Hillary Clinton is a “formidable candidate” who could win the 2008 presidential election.
Then again, maybe Vice President Dick Cheney is just hoping she’ll run. Cheney was handicapping possible Democratic candidates Tuesday on Sean Hannity’s radio show.
The veep was bearish on Barack Obama, the two-year senator from Illinois, saying, “I think people might want a little more experience than that, given the nature of the times we live in.”
In Cheney’s case, some would say experience is overrated. But for those cynics, he did have some encouraging words about his own political plans for 2008: “If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”
Posted by Dave Knadler
Candidates simply pursuing the family business
Oct. 25, 20061:01 a.m.
The gloss may be off the Bush dynasty these days, but this election is full of other legacy candidates. Bloomberg News reports on the multiple Senate candidates whose fathers were big in politics: Republican Thomas Kean Jr. (in photo) in New Jersey and Democrats Bob Casey Jr. in Pennsylvania, Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee and Jack Carter in Nevada, as well as incumbent Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.
Five other sitting senators are children of former senators: Democrats Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Evan Bayh of Indiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas; and Republicans Robert Bennett of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
The article doesn’t note that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is the daughter of an Ohio governor.
Beyond the fact of all these family ties is a good question: Is political parentage really a good gauge of fitness to serve in such high political offices?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
China facing rapidly spreading AIDS epidemic
Oct. 25, 20061:00 a.m.
The worldwide spread of AIDS has not forgotten China. But the Chinese government needs to step up the efforts to provide education about prevention and the importance of adhering to drug therapy.
Reuters recently reported that AIDS was first introduced to the country mostly to poor farmers through botched blood-selling schemes in the 1980s and 1990s. This quickly spread to intravenous drug abusers and high-risk groups. According to a recent report, there are 190 new HIV cases every day, and 1 percent of all pregnant women in China are HIV positive.
Posted by Angie Holladay
Kline sinks to new low with negative ad
Oct. 24, 20062:02 p.m.
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
White House cuts and runs from ’stay the course’
Oct. 24, 20061:57 p.m.
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
Welcome back to work at Bombardier
Oct. 24, 20061:04 a.m.
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
Evangelical Christians starting to champion global needs
Oct. 24, 20061:02 a.m.
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
