As Katha Pollitt of the Nation magazine counts the reasons voters gave Congress to Democrats, in a piece in the current issue headlined “Why they lost,” Kansas comes up: “They lost because women don’t want to be forced to bear their rapists’ babies, even in South Dakota, and they don’t want the attorney general investigating their abortions, even in Kansas.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Guided by the hindsight of the 2006 election, the husband-and-wife columnist team of Steven and Cokie Roberts offered five rules of presidential politics and drew an interesting conclusion: that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius fits them all right now.
The rules: History matters. Campaigns matter. Stories matter. Location matters. And ideology matters. Sebelius is a “Democrat who won re-election by 17 points in a deeply red Midwestern state,” they noted, and “a gun-owning, budget-balancing mother of two sons who grew up in Ohio” and “married into an old Republican family (her late father-in-law succeeded Bob Dole in Congress and served 12 years). You heard it here first.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
When you consider means, motive and opportunity, the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko looks a lot like murder — and the Kremlin looks a lot like a suspect.
Consider the means: Polonium 210, a radioactive substance that is deadly when ingested and very hard to detect. It also happens to be one of the world’s rarest elements — something only a state might possess.
Motive: Litvinenko has defended the Chechen separatists battling Moscow’s rule. He was a longtime critic of the Russian government in general, and President Vladimir Putin in particular.
Opportunity: Litvinenko fell ill after meeting with a contact who claimed to have information connecting the Kremlin with the October slaying of another critic, journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Washington Post reporter Thomas Ricks’ piece exposes the serious U.S. failures to train Iraqi security forces and confirms the worst fears of many Americans.
We’re not succeeding at this, either.
Remember, training Iraqis to stand up has been the centerpiece of U.S. strategy for getting out of Iraq, and is likely to figure large in the Baker study group recommendations.
The Army’s own exit interviews with officers found widespread criticism of the training efforts as under-resourced, undermanned and underplanned. As Ricks reports, “Many said they felt poorly supported by the Army while in Iraq, with intermittent shipments of supplies and interpreters who often did not seem to understand English.”
Sound familiar? Further evidence of the administration’s almost criminal incompetence and poor planning.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
State Sen. Phil Journey (in photo), R-Haysville, is also a lawyer who is currently representing perhaps the worst offender in the city’s recent campaign to fight blight.
Neighbors have been complaining about Gregory Gracey’s trashed property at 10th and Volutsia for more than a decade, to no effect.
After the city of Wichita filed an injunction against the property to have it cleaned up, Journey issued a statement saying he had gotten a local business to donate a trash bin and adding, “I think it’s unfortunate this community has chosen not to help one of its citizens.”
Remember: Blame long-suffering neighbors for blight — they should have cleaned it up themselves.
You wonder if Journey’s message would be the same if this rat hole was in his district.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Don’t expect the new Senate Intelligence Committee to be a lot like the old one under Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan. New Chairman Jay Rockefeller (in photo), D-W.Va., who was often at odds with Roberts, promised on CNN Radio last week that he’d have a “cleanup agenda” ready for January. “It’s not understandable to me, but the majority party sort of didn’t want to do a lot of oversight,” Rockefeller said. He sees the committee’s job as “holding people accountable, and what I hope to do is be aggressive on that.” Rockefeller also wants to expedite the interminable review of what went wrong with the prewar intelligence on Iraq and to be aggressive in reviewing the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping and secret prisons. Rockefeller’s committee will be different, but will it impede or enhance national security?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Acting on something Gov. Kathleen Sebelius started last year, the Kansas State Department of Education has made a forward-thinking deal with China’s Office of Chinese Language Council International that should mean more Kansas children can study Chinese in school. As it is, only nine school districts offer Chinese instruction, mostly through distance learning. The agreement should increase the numbers of teachers in Kansas qualified to teach Chinese. “School districts are waking up to this. Businesses are asking school districts to teach students Chinese,” said Nancy Hope, associate executive director for education at the Confucius Institute at the University of Kansas’ Edwards Campus in Overland Park. Still, having the opportunity to enroll and actually doing it are two different things.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Kansas lawmakers and the governor may wonder whether divesting the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System from Sudan would be worth the trouble. They now have some high-profile opinions to the contrary, what with Tuesday’s joint letter to governors from Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urging such divestiture. In addition, four Democrats and two Republicans in the U.S. House — none from Kansas — sent letters to Sebelius and other governors calling for state pension funds to get out of Sudan and add to the pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the genocide. As Brownback said on the issue last week: “Divestment helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, and I hope the example already set by six states will inspire other governors to take action.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The pharmaceutical industry is wasting no time trying to protect its profits from the coming Democratic majority in Congress, the New York Times reported. Top company executives met this month to develop strategies to block attempts to allow the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices. The 2003 Medicare law, which was written and rammed through Congress by Republicans, prohibits the government from negotiating drug prices or establishing a list of preferred drugs.
The drug companies argue that price negotiations would lead to price controls and restrictions on access to drugs. But Democrats, and most of the public, see the lack of negotiations as a payoff for the $100 million a year that drug companies spend on lobbying, and a main reason the Medicare drug program costs taxpayers so much money.
Democrats also want to allow drug imports from Canada, encourage more generic drugs, and investigate drug profits and advertising.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
“I don’t particularly like the effect that it has on politics,” former Kansas Republican Gov. John Anderson said about special-interest causes such as abortion.
Anderson, who was governor from 1961 to 1964, told the Topeka Capital-Journal that too many people forget government exists to serve broad public interests. “Change should be in the interests of the general public,” he said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Retiring Kansas House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, may be right that “not more than 1 percent of people could tell you who the speaker is.” But he’s also right that “it’s unquestionably the second-most powerful political job in Kansas.”
Our editorial on Saturday’s Opinion page notes that no Wichitans are running for the top job — as usual — but commends those area lawmakers who are seeking leadership posts: Rep. Joe McLeland of Wichita, currently assistant majority leader, who is running for speaker pro tem; Rep. Steve Brunk of Wichita, current majority whip, and Rep. John Grange of El Dorado, who are vying to be assistant majority leader; and Rep. Jim Ward (in photo), D-Wichita, who is expected to remain assistant minority leader.
The well-qualified nominees to replace retiring House Speaker Doug Mays of Topeka are Rep. Melvin Neufeld of Ingalls, Mike O’Neal of Hutchinson and Kenny Wilk of Lansing. As we note, the winner “will make or break pieces of legislation — and determine whether Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ big re-election win translates into a productive second term.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Our Monday editorial praised Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ announced intention in her second term to more boldly promote renewable energy, especially wind power.
Kansas remains one of the top-rated states for wind potential — and one of the slowest to seize the economic opportunity.
A new electric transmission authority approved last year for western Kansas could help, but Kansas really needs a state Renewable Portfolio Standard, which commits utilities to using a certain percentage of renewables by a certain date.
“That’s the missing piece,” noted Craig Volland of the Kansas Sierra Club.
Moreover, the debate is growing — including on this blog — over the proposed coal-fired power plants near Holcomb.
As we argued in the piece, Sebelius needs to address questions about the global-warming gases these plants will spew and whether the complex will reduce demand for renewables and put pressure on the Ogallala Aquifer.
Is Kansas going to be a leader in the fight against global warming, or one of the worst offenders?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Legislation introduced by lame-duck Sen. George Allen, R-Va., would allow conceal-carry in national parks. The thinking is that gun-owning Americans ought not be less able to defend themselves on a mountain trail than on a city street. In response, the New York Times opined: “If Americans want to feel safer in their national parks, the proper solution is to increase park funding, which has decayed steadily since the Bush administration took office.” Discuss.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The battle between science and religion is shaping up to be an all-out war. A number of scientists at a forum this month at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies issued a call to arms against religion.
“The world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief,” warned Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in physics. He added: “Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest contribution to civilization.”
The frustration of the scientists is understandable — especially by those of us who live in a state where science standards have been under siege. But their hostile, anti-religious rhetoric gives ammunition to fundamentalists who think science is anti-God.
Most Americans and most Christians are more in the middle, looking to science for the how and to religion for the why.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Columnist Robert Novak applauded Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and a few other lawmakers for bucking the GOP efforts to push through more pork spending while they still held the majority. But Novak isn’t optimistic that the new Democratic majority will do any better about controlling spending. He wrote: “It is highly unlikely that Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a legendary king of pork returning as Appropriations Committee chairman, will reverse the habits of a lifetime and listen to ordinary voters’ revulsion over excessive federal spending.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
California can seem like a whole other country in terms of its court system, but it’s interesting that the state Supreme Court ruled this week that federal law prevents those who run blogs and Web bulletin boards from being sued for the defamatory expressions made by others. “Subjecting Internet service providers and users to defamation liability would tend to chill online speech,” the unanimous court said, pointing to the federal Communications Decency Act, passed by Congress in 1966.
Meanwhile, in Kansas, the Legislature refuses to repeal the state’s Third World-style criminal defamation law, which carries fines and up to a year in jail.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Americans are divided about the war in Iraq but should be united in gratitude for the men and women serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Most of us will be enjoying this day with our families because of their willingness to be away from theirs.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Talk of the minimum wage is all the rage these days, what with six states having voted this month to hike theirs and the Democrats vowing to raise the $5.15-an-hour federal minimum as one of the first acts of their new Democratic Congress.
Then there is Kansas.
Kansas’ $2.65-an-hour minimum wage is now the lowest in the nation, with Kansas the only state to have a wage lower than the feds’ $5.15 (if you don’t count the U.S. Virgin Islands or the six states without minimum wages). True, Kansas’ embarrassing wage is mostly symbolic, because the state minimum does not apply to workers who come under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Still, Kansas’ minimum wage certainly stands out from the crowd, as this map shows. While it may not be much of a welcome mat for potential workers, maybe it will signal businesses in the mood to relocate or expand that Kansas is their kind of low-cost state. Or maybe state lawmakers will finally follow the lead of state Rep. Ted Powers, R-Mulvane, by doing the right thing and raising it.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
I caught the last half of the “Frontline” special Tuesday night on PBS on "Living Old." Most of the focus on our aging society — those over 85 are our fastest growing segment of the U.S. population — is on the economic impact, which will be huge. But the special also dealt with the human impact — what it’s like being old, end-of-life decisions, the burden of being a caregiver, the state of many nursing homes. The opinion of one of the elderly persons interviewed: Growing old is for the birds.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
In a month that has seen a number of second acts begin (Trent Lott, Robert Gates) and falter (John Kerry), the biggest is surely that of Daniel Ortega, the former Sandinista guerrilla leader elected as Nicaragua’s president in a comeback after his 1985-90 reign. Ortega, whose candidacy was championed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, contends that he’s a new man whose administration will respect property rights and trade agreements. It’s hard not to be skeptical. In his first trip outside the country since the election, to Guatemala, Ortega blasted plans for a U.S. border wall and called for the United States to learn to live with Latin America’s leftists and “work for the unity of the Americas,” while “taking into account the asymmetries between the countries.” Does that mean accepting all comers?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
As we speculated earlier, state Education Commissioner Bob Corkins has resigned. The State Board of Education accepted his resignation today. Corkins, who was paid $140,000 a year, will receive a 30-day severance package estimated at about $11,000. Board chairman Steve Abrams said that he didn’t ask Corkins to resign. “I’ve liked what he’s done for education. I didn’t want to see him go,” Abrams told Associated Press. Most of the state’s citizens (and the majority of new State BOE members) think otherwise.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Attorney General-elect Paul Morrison has officially resigned as Johnson County’s district attorney, meaning that county’s Republican Party has about three weeks to convene precinct leaders and elect a successor. The task falls to the GOP, because Morrison was elected district attorney as a Republican. Will the party give the job to defeated incumbent Attorney General Phill Kline over the three assistant district attorneys and one Lenexa lawyer who want it? The local party chairman “would not rule him out” last month, but some say Kline lacks the requisite experience.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
