The big diplomatic debate is whether the United States should engage Iran and Syria as part of finding a solution in Iraq. But according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, Iran and Syria are already engaged — in a bad way. Hezbollah in Lebanon has trained 1,000 to 2,000 members of Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia army, the New York Times reported. Iran facilitated this training, with the cooperation Syrian officials.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
“People ask how I can be a conservative and still want higher taxes,” Ben Stein wrote in a New York Times commentary. “It makes my head spin, and I guess it shows how old I am. But I thought that conservatives were supposed to like balanced budgets. I thought it was the conservative position to not leave heavy indebtedness to our grandchildren. I thought it was the conservative view that there should be some balance between income and outflow. When did this change?”
For those who counter that we need to cut spending, not raise taxes, Stein responds: “The sad fact is that spending rises every year, no matter what people want or say they want.”
And what about the cries of “class warfare” if you note that the rich pay a much smaller percentage of their income on taxes than everyone else does? Stein quotes what billionaire investor Warren Buffett told him: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
More than 155,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported. Of those, more than 16,000 are single moms, which is an unprecedented total, military experts say. “How these women have coped and how their children are managing have gone little-noticed as the war stretches across a fourth year,” the Post noted.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Kansas’ role in the presidential nomination process was best demonstrated in 2000, when the campaign of all-but-official GOP nominee George Bush declared victory in Kansas’ April primary — which lawmakers had canceled weeks before. But Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh (in photo) is onto something with his efforts to include Kansas among states in the region holding presidential primaries on the same day in 2008, preferably early enough to matter to what should be uncommonly wide-open contests in both major parties. On the right date and with the right regional coordination, a Kansas primary could draw campaigning candidates, stir voter interest and justify spending $2.5 million, which Thornburgh will ask the 2007 Legislature to set aside. “We’re going to continue to work with our neighboring states to try to develop a regional primary, and then we have the ability to place Kansas where it’s best able to be a part of that process,” he said.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
A few weeks back, a WE Blog item questioned whether Sedgwick County was behind in booking an opening act for the new downtown arena. Don’t big music acts have to be signed years in advance?
Not to worry. County Manager Bill Buchanan e-mailed to point out that no one books acts more than two years out, except maybe family acts such as the circus. Moreover, it’s still uncertain when the arena will be completed and ready to open, so at this point “it is impossible to pick a date for an opening act.”
And the county must also decide who will operate the arena (a decision is still a few weeks away) before booking acts.
Kansas Coliseum director John Nath also was reassuring. “All the tours know that we have a new building here,” he told The Eagle editorial board, and his staff has started talking about who would be a good opening act. But it’s too soon to choose, he said — even big stars like Sir Elton John or Bruce Springsteen “could be yesterday’s news three years from now.”
That said, other events, such as basketball games, can be booked years ahead. Nath said that Wichita State University has already expressed enthusiasm about the Shockers playing a game downtown. He’s also made initial contacts with the University of Kansas and the NCAA.
In short, the county seems on top of the situation. Stay tuned.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
