Eleven more U.S. soldiers died one day last week in Iraq in five separate incidents.
You have to ask: For what? For a botched policy that few of our nation’s “leaders” of either party would admit until recently is a colossal failure?
Sen. John Kerry’s courageous words challenging our leaders at the end of the Vietnam War sound more relevant than ever: “How can you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Former Democratic Kansas congressman Dr. Bill Roy has a commentary on today’s Opinion pages in which he says that Sen. Sam Brownback has “a very real chance to get the (GOP presidential) nomination primarily based on his advanced political skills, superior intelligence, people skills and proven knowledge about how to get ahead politically.” And Roy thinks that if Brownback wins the nomination, he has a shot to win the general election. Does Roy know something that most other observers don’t?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Each day brings another conservative Republican blasting the bipartisan Iraq Study Group for, among other things, failing to include victory among its recommendations. Rush Limbaugh called it the “Iraq Surrender Group.” William Bennett called the report “Self-congratulatory. Full of itself. Horrible.”
To their credit, Kansas’ GOP senators have sounded a more cautiously optimistic tone. Sen. Sam Brownback called the report “a welcome contribution to a national debate on our commitments in Iraq, but this is only the beginning.” He added, “Even as we speed up the transfer of responsibility to the Iraqis, we must ensure the defeat of terrorists in Iraq and nurture democracy and stability.”
Sen. Pat Roberts made another optimistic point: “If the Iraq Study Group can agree on three major and flexible policy shifts in Iraq and 79 specific recommendations, the hope is the Congress and the administration can do the same.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The year 2005 may prove decisive in defining the face of Kansas in the 21st century. That’s when, according to new census data, Hispanics became the majority population in Seward County, rising to 50.4 percent of the county’s 23,274 residents, up from 49.4 percent of the population in 2004. Also last year, all minorities together made up more than 50 percent of the population of Ford County for the first time, with non-Hispanic whites slipping from 50.9 percent in 2004 to 49.6 percent in 2005. (Wyandotte County is the only other Kansas county in which minorities add up to a majority.) As the Hispanic numbers grew in 12 of 14 counties in southeast Kansas last year, the non-Hispanic white population decreased in 13 of those counties — mostly because young people continue to leave for college and jobs. And it’s likely that the Hispanic population percentages are low, because many undocumented residents escape such counting.
Many will see this change in Kansas’ demographics as a challenge and opportunity rather than a threat. Others, of course, will rue the day. Either way, is Kansas ready for this?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
