Come one, come all (even Ian) to the WE Blog meet-up this Thursday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at The Eagle building. We’re located at 825 E. Douglas, across the street from Old Town. Parking and the building entrance are in the back (off Rock Island). We’ll provide snacks and nonalcoholic beverages (sorry), and we’ll do a short Eagle tour for anyone interested. Plus, as an added attraction, Brent Castillo (aka Values Boy) will be there. It should be a fun time visiting and putting faces with blog names. Hope to see you there.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
President Bush will have another shot at convincing the public to support his troop surge plan for Iraq during his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But a new Washington Post-ABC pollindicates that it will be a tough sell. The poll found that 65 percent of Americans oppose sending more troops to Iraq. What’s more, the public trusts congressional Democrats more than Bush to deal with Iraq by a margin of 60 percent to 33 percent.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
LIVE BLOGGING TUESDAY NIGHT: We’re hosting another live blogging during the State of the Union address, which begins at 8 p.m. Hope you will participate. No word yet on whether we’ll be invaded by Dave Barry bloggers, as happened during last year’s address.
Too often, Kansas doesn’t appreciate the upside of the fame of "The Wizard of Oz" — in the public’s mind, Kansas will always be the "home" in "There’s no place like home." Still, it was hard not to cringe at Sen. Sam Brownback’s tired "Oz" allusion in his presidential campaign kickoff remarks Saturday: "My family and I are taking the first steps on the yellow brick road to the White House. It’s a great journey." That turned out to be the sound bite of the event for the national media. Given his place in the polls, Brownback can expect a bumpy ride.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
An interesting article in the online magazine Slate examines the widespread notion that some U.S. businesses must rely on illegal immigrant labor because Americans are lazy and won’t take menial jobs.
Turns out that’s not quite true. Americans work long hours, but they do avoid dirty, unskilled, low-paying jobs such as cleaning or roofing. Turns out they also avoid stressful work such as nursing that requires lots of skills and training — again, mainly because it doesn’t pay enough and there are other alternatives.
If business owners were willing to pay what the prevailing labor market demands, the author argues, more Americans would be willing to work these jobs. Do bloggers agree?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Maybe there’s a way to the White House down the middle for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. As it is, his sides are getting bruised.
On the left, MoveOn.org is conducting a $250,000 TV ad campaign against McCain in Iowa, New Hampshire and on cable, arguing it is “actually his idea to escalate the war” in Iraq.
On the right, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson recently said that McCain doesn’t support traditional marriage values and that he would not vote for McCain “under any circumstances.” He added: “I pray that we will not get stuck with him.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Emporia Gazette only appeared to welcome the effort to make English the state’s official language, observing how much “gibberish” and “gobbledygook” can be found in the state’s regulations, forms and other official documents.
But its editorial concluded: “If the House Republicans want to do something to strengthen the role of English in Kansas government, we would suggest comprehensive English exams — and perhaps weekly pop quizzes in grammar and spelling — for all members of the Legislature.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Litigation seems an offensive and pointless way to solve the homeless problem. But a New York City antiques dealer has sued four street people to keep them away from his store and from “performing various bodily functions such as urinating and spitting” outside, even seeking $1 million from them. Store owner Karl Kemp also apparently wanted to protest the lack of police response to his complaints, suggesting he pays taxes to maintain decent shelters for such people. What say you, bloggers?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
