While a reluctant President Bush met with an independent panel to cast about for some sort of Plan B for Iraq, militants in Baghdad were moving ahead with Plan A.
Tuesday’s kidnapping of up to 150 Iraqis from a government office in Baghdad is only the latest catastrophe in a city full of them, but it set a new standard in both organization and scope. Witnesses said about 25 police vehicles, manned by men in police uniforms, carried out the mass abduction at the Ministry of Higher Education.
The government ordered the apprehension of several police officials, and Iraq’s minister of higher education suspended classes at all universities.
But the impunity with which armed groups seem to work in Baghdad does not bode well for stability anytime soon.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Rudolph Giuliani could have been elected president in November 2001, back in the post-Sept. 11 days when he was dubbed “America’s mayor,” but what about November 2008? Polls still say he’s much admired, but now that he has set up an exploratory committee, his ability to secure the Republican nomination seems uncertain. His socially liberal views, complicated marital history and big city roots all have the potential to put off red-state voters and, more immediately, big money Republicans.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Local businessman Wink Hartman, owner of Chester’s Chophouse at the Waterfront in east Wichita, wants to put a high-end sister restaurant in the empty Wichita Boathouse but has felt snubbed by City Hall so far.
Tearing down the Boathouse doesn’t appear politically feasible — thank goodness.
As we said in our editorial today: “To quell the rumors, the City Council should send some clear signals about its intention to save the building and give more details about the request-for-proposal process planned for spring.” And when Hartman makes his formal pitch on Dec. 12, council “members and staff need to give him a close and respectful hearing.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
On the Wichita City Council agenda today is a new “StopBlight” program to address the scourge of abandoned and neglected houses in some Wichita neighborhoods. The initiative is long overdue. Nobody should have to live next to these dumps. Too many deadbeat owners have been able to avoid making repairs to their blighted properties.
The new rules would, among other changes, increase fines for offenders, force owners to register vacant properties that have been boarded up for more than 90 days, and require them to submit an action plan for repairs.
One question mark about the program: Are there enough city inspectors to enforce the program and give it some bite?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The 79 percent of the votes Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, won last week in Kansas’ “Big First” made him the House Republican with the third-highest percentage win in the nation. Moran lagged only Louisiana Republican Reps. Bobby Jindal (88 percent) and Richard Baker (83 percent) — though 35 Democrats hit or exceeded Moran’s mark. Of course, Moran had an off night historically: He won with 91 percent in 2004 and 2002. Two likely explanations for Moran’s standout popularity with voters: He holds town hall meetings in each of his 69 counties every year. And “you almost never hear me come home defending what’s going on in Washington,” Moran told the Topeka Capital-Journal.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Kansas City Star columnist Steve Kraske didn’t wait for history to draw conclusions about what the 2006 election will mean for Kansas politics.
On Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, he wrote: “Boffo re-elect. Presidential-style campaign ads. Now, can she pull off a major legislative achievement? To be listed on every Democratic vice presidential short list in ‘08. (Yeah, she’s from Kansas, but she’s a woman, right?)”
On Kansas Democrats: “What’s this? A bench? Lt. Gov.-elect Mark Parkinson stands in the gubernatorial queue for 2010. Then there’s Morrison, Boyda, Moore. Suddenly Democrats are everywhere.”
As for Kansas Republicans: “Think Tuesday’s election results will knock some sense into ‘em? Think again. Principle trumps politics. Internal strife reigns.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Let’s say you’re an average wage earner in Equatorial Guinea, pulling down about $1 a day.
Imagine your consternation to learn that the son of President Teodoro Nguema Obiang (in photo) has closed on a $35 million beach house in Malibu. Let’s say you could afford a pocket calculator: You’d find out that’s roughly equivalent to about 96,000 years of your labor.
Hey, something to shoot for. But this tale, related by the BBC, illustrates that Africa’s biggest problem isn’t AIDS, and it isn’t the capricious guerrilla wars that erupt with the regularity of summer storms. Africa’s biggest problem is corruption. Equatorial Guinea is one of the most corrupt nations in a continent full of them.
Despite more than $300 billion in development aid to Sub-Saharan Africa over the past 20 years, African countries continually rank at the bottom of U.N. studies measuring life expectancy, gross domestic product and literacy. And every year, as the Los Angeles Times has noted, the $15 billion in aid that flows into Africa is roughly matched by the funds flowing out — to Western banks. Or in this case, to Malibu.
Posted by Dave Knadler
