Daily Archives: Nov. 18, 2006

Open thread

Saturday1:05 a.m.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Open thread | Comments (119)

Lott still in hot water with base

Saturday1:03 a.m.

Think conservatives were happy to see former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., rise again this week, winning enough Senate Republican votes to become minority whip? Quotes rounded up by the Kansas City Star suggest otherwise.
Charles Bird (Redstate.com) called it “a bad beginning” and Lott “one of the biggest pigs in the federal trough.” Mary K. Ham (Townhall.com) wrote, “You Guys Are Killin’ Me, Part 87,458.” Michelle Malkin (michellemalkin.com) said, “Another GOP Maalox moment.” And Andrew Stuttaford (National Review Online) concluded: “Thanks a Lott.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under U.S. politics | Comments (19)

Method to Pelosi’s moment of madness?

Saturday1:02 a.m.

Everybody thinks that incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., blew it big time by backing Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., to be House majority leader over the winner, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. But she’s known to have a good working relationship with Hoyer. Maybe it was not a case of backing the wrong horse but rather of publicly showing loyalty to a guy, Murtha, who had a lot to do with changing the nation’s mood on Iraq, who had no chance of winning (given his murky ethics), and who will now be less inclined to give her grief.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under U.S. politics | Comments (16)

Why not get KPERS out of Sudan?

Saturday1:01 a.m.

There was a rare bit of good news regarding Darfur this week — the Sudanese government’s tentative agreement to a joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping force. Meanwhile, back in Kansas, members of a joint House-Senate committee on pensions showed an unseemly lack of interest in using the one tool they have to help stop the genocide in Sudan — legislation to divest the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System from Sudan. Six states already have done so. True, Rep. Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, probably summed it up for a lot of lawmakers and Kansans when he said: “It’s not a problem that you can solve with KPERS, so I don’t think there’s any interest in going there.”
But KPERS had a similar ban on South African investments from 1986 to 1994, when such divestitures helped end apartheid in that nation. KPERS’ links to Sudan are few, and divestiture would have a cost. But as we ask in our editorial on today’s Opinion page: “Will Kansas lead as it can on this issue, or look the other way?”
Posted by Rhonda Holman

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Foreign affairs, Kansas government | Comments (2)

Public in dark when private companies do government work

Saturday1:00 a.m.

Eagle columnist Mark McCormick put a spotlight this month on what’s becoming a growing problem: the lack of transparency when private companies do government work. McCormick focused on Durham Bus Services, which provides bus transportation for the Wichita school district. He related the difficulty he and some parents have had getting information about bus drivers. Unlike the school district, Durham is a private company, and it has refused to answer basic questions about its bus drivers.
As governmental units, including the U.S. military, outsource more and more work to private contractors, the public may save some money, but it can also lose accountability.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (18)