Like so many presidents, Gerald Ford looks better in hindsight than he did in live action, when every move he made was tainted by his pardon of Richard Nixon. The points of pride of the 38th president’s 895-day tenure include: His courage in stepping into a constitutional crisis. His humility, honesty, hard work and lack of opportunism. His inspiring wife, Betty, who proved just as well-grounded as he did. Both his respect for Congress and his fearless use of the veto pen — 66 times. Kansans also can feel a special connection to Ford because of his Nebraska roots and his selection of Russell’s own Bob Dole as his running mate in 1976.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
During the heat of a legislative session, when politics is on full display in the Statehouse, few would have the courage to declare legislators underpaid. But credit goes to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for calling attention to the issue last week. “I think, frankly, we are overdue to look at salaries across the board,” she said, noting that Attorney General-elect Paul Morrison will see a $50,000 pay cut in leaving the Johnson County district attorney job. The fact is that even with the available add-ons for interim work and expenses, the average $23,300 salary per legislator does not cover the lost income and other costs of serving, especially those associated with constituent service in geographically large districts. Better compensation might attract better-quality lawmakers, too. Avoiding the issue of whether they deserve more pay “makes it more difficult for good people to look at public service,” she said.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
I was surprised when President Bush said last week that Social Security reform was one area on which he hoped to reach an agreement with the new Congress. After all, Bush’s plan for private accounts was a nonstarter with many Democrats — and couldn’t even get a hearing in the GOP-controlled Congress. But Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., also promoted private savings accounts as a bipartisan solution in a Washington Post op-ed piece this week. Under his plan, an individual personal retirement account would be “established for every American at birth and would be endowed with a $1,000 contribution from the federal government.” Then, beginning in 2009, “1 percent of every worker’s paycheck would be automatically deposited into his own account for the first $100,000 earned annually, with his employer required to match this 1 percent contribution.” Assuming a 6.59 percent rate of return, Sessions calculates that someone making the median household income ($46,000 in 2005) would retire with almost $300,000, and that money could be passed on to heirs.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., isn’t doing well in Iowa, according to a poll last week. He is tied for sixth place with four other possible GOP presidential candidates, each with only 1 percent support. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani were the top Republicans with 27 percent and 26 percent support, respectively.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., also isn’t faring that well. She came in fourth among Iowa Democrats, with 10 percent support. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards were tied for first with 22 percent each, and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack was third with 12 percent. Meanwhile, Obama has erased Clinton’s big lead in New Hampshire, according to another poll.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Federal investigators already determined that $1 billion in aid to Hurricane Katrina victims was misspent. Now they are estimating that another $1 billion may have been wasted on no-bid contracts with businesses. Some waste is expected in a crisis, but not $2 billion worth.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Iraq’s highest appeals court upheld former President Saddam Hussein’s death sentence and said he must be hanged “within 30 days.” Good. Just don’t put Basra’s serious crimes unit in charge of the execution. That unit, like many police forces in Iraq, was infiltrated by militias and criminal elements, the New York Times reported. British and Iraqi soldiers attacked the unit’s station Monday and rescued 127 prisoners, many of whom had been tortured. “The serious crimes unit was at the center of death squad activity,” said British military spokesman Maj. Charlie Burbridge.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s been a tough month for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The latest bad news: Iran’s oil export revenues are plummeting.
CNN reports that oil revenue has been declining at up to 12 percent a year, mostly because of Iran’s neglect of its oil infrastructure and perceived hostility to foreign investment. If the trend continues, oil revenue could disappear by 2015.
In a report written for the National Academy of Sciences, author Roger Stern said that if the United States can “hold its breath” for a few years, it may find a cash-strapped Iran quite a bit less belligerent than it is now — an excellent reason, he says, to put off any plans to take on Iran militarily.
Posted by Dave Knadler
All was not forgiven after Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., got out of the way of the nomination to the federal bench of Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Janet Neff last week. The New York Times editorialized: “Whether someone has attended a same-sex commitment ceremony is not a worthy litmus test to impose on someone seeking an important office. Whether someone holds hateful views toward gay people certainly is.”
Newsday opined: “In the annals of politicians using the federal judiciary as a foil to advance their own careers, the shenanigans of Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) will earn a special spot in the section dedicated to bigoted fools.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Premarital sex is the norm for most Americans and has been for decades, according to a new study by the Guttmacher Institute. An overwhelming majority of Americans — 9 in 10 people, men and women — told researchers that they had sex before marriage. The figure remains steady even for older Americans raised in the 1940s and 1950s, which casts doubt on theories of a golden age of chastity in America.
One of the study’s authors, Lawrence Finer, called this a “reality check” to those opposing sex education, including the Bush administration, which has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into abstinence-only programs.
“It would be more effective,” Finer said, “to provide young people with the skills and information they need to be safe once they become sexually active — which nearly everyone eventually will.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Some conservative pundits are huffing about the Iraq Study Group’s recommendation that the Bush administration negotiate with Syria and Iran. But President Reagan showed that negotiating with your enemy isn’t a sign of weakness, nor does it require abandoning your ideals. As Abraham Sofaer of the Hoover Institution noted in a commentary in the Wall Street Journal: “The arguments against negotiating with Syria and Iran were also made against negotiating with the Soviet Union, and by some of the same people. . . . President Reagan challenged Soviet behavior by supporting groups fighting communist intervention, building the military, strengthening NATO, condemning human-rights violations, commencing a missile-defense program, and conveying the message of freedom in every way possible. George Shultz supported these efforts but sought to negotiate with the Soviets in an attempt to increase stability, reduce nuclear weapons, attain freedom for oppressed groups, and enhance understanding.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Merry Christmas to all you bloggers. Thanks again for your contributions to this blog and for your interest in politics and public policy. Special blessings on those of you who also gave your time and money to area charities this year. And comfort to those who are dealing with sickness, loss or who are separated from loved ones this holiday, particular those serving in the military overseas. May this day be merry and bright.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
If the troops are on your minds this Christmas Day, you can do more than wonder how they’re faring. The Web site milblogging.com links to 1,600 U.S. military bloggers in 27 countries. Send a soldier a Christmas greeting today.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
I’m much more interested in Time magazine’s photos of the year than its Person of the Year — especially with this year’s lame pick. Here’s a link its 2006 year in photos.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
“Conservative-headed families in 2000 gave about 30 percent more money per year than liberal-headed families on average, while (in these data, at least) earning 6 percent less income,” Arthur C. Brookes, a professor of public administration at Syracuse University, said in a National Review interview. Brookes said that the biggest driver for giving is religion. “People who attend a house of worship every week are 25 percentage points more likely to give to charity each year than people who never go to church, and give away about four times as much money,” he said. And they give more to religious and nonreligious causes. The least charitable group tends to be secular conservatives, who give and volunteer less than secular liberals, and far less than religious conservatives.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Bob Knight was too hard on himself in telling The Eagle last week why he won’t run for mayor in 2007 after all: “We don’t need a retread.” During Knight’s quarter century of public service to the city of Wichita, more often than not as mayor, he showed an uncommon ability to get things done, especially in partnership with the late City Manager Chris Cherches — an impression that gets stronger with every report of dysfunction out of the current City Hall. Still, Knight’s point about city leadership needing fresh faces has merit. Even with Mayor Carlos Mayans and City Council member Carl Brewer in the mayoral race, voters and the public debate could benefit from additional choices. Civic- and business-minded Wichitans need apply.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The world and its threats are changing, and the military must change and adapt to them. As part of that repositioning, McConnell Air Force Base has been assigned a major new intelligence mission for a Kansas Air National Guard unit stationed there.
As reported in The Eagle, several hundred guardsmen at the base will be retrained as high-tech intelligence analysts, monitoring drones and other spy devices and sending real-time information to ground forces around the globe.
American forces have a clear weapons superiority, but as the Iraq conflict shows, we’re flying blind without good intelligence and spycraft. It’s good that McConnell can be part of that vital mission.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ Christmas card, featuring the decorated entrance to Cedar Crest, is among the gubernatorial greetings on the Web site Stateline.org. It’s certainly more attractive than that of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which again features the governor’s own artwork.
Read Sebelius’ holiday commentary here. She rightly urges all Kansans to support the men and women fighting on our behalf around the world, as well as the loved ones waiting on their safe return: “As you celebrate this month, please send your support in letters, in prayers or in a simple ‘thank you’ to all those willing to give everything, in a world where so many have nothing.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“President Bush actually said today he will not be rushed into a decision about Iraq. I guess one time is enough for him.” –Jay Leno
“Dennis Kucinich (in photo) has announced that he’s running for president in 2008. In a related story, somewhere a tree fell in a forest.” — David Letterman
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Were last week’s federal raids on Swift meatpacking plants, involving more than 1,000 federal agents in six states, meaningful action toward fixing the nation’s broken immigration system? The Wall Street Journal editorial board thinks not: “1,000 federal agents that could have been focused on potential terrorists or other dangerous threats were instead focused on a meatpacking company that hires thousands of willing unskilled workers and pays them more than twice the minimum wage with full health benefits after six months. How’s that for government efficiency?”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
In what could become a common occurrence, “Saturday Night Live” posted online a skit from last week’s show that it had to bleep many times during the televised broadcast. It is a song parody about two boy-band singers (including Justin Timberlake) who give their male anatomy as a present, the New York Times reported. Within days of being posted, millions of people watched the uncensored video. Other network shows are sure to follow.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Another sign of civilization unraveling around us: Starting in January, Emirates airline is scheduled to become the first to allow in-flight use of cell phones.
It’s only a matter of time before U.S. carriers follow suit; the FAA is now reviewing its increasingly dubious concern that cell traffic might somehow interfere with flight systems.
“Whether people like it or not, in-flight cell phone use is going to become a reality,” said Chris McGinnis, editor of Expedia Travel Trendwatch.
This despite a recent poll indicating that a majority of business travelers oppose the idea.
I’m no business traveler, but I’m with them on this one. Isn’t flying onerous enough without the guy behind you shouting nonstop into his cell phone?
Posted by Dave Knadler
