With nine fellow Democrats looking to occupy the White House in 2008, Sen. John Kerry has opted not to be the 10th.
Few Democrats are likely to mourn his decision. He’s been widely criticized for a lackluster presidential campaign in 2004, and Republicans seized on his infamous botched joke about Iraq last fall to further marginalize the man.
A wise choice, senator. Against Democratic stars like Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, your chances were probably pretty close to nil anyway.
Posted by Dave Knadler
"As a child growing up in Wichita, I learned to spot a failure when I saw one. And this one’s a whopper," Jack A. Cole wrote about the war of drugs in a commentary in Tuesday’s Eagle. Cole was an undercover narcotics officer with the New Jersey state police who now directs Law Enforcement Against Prohibition in Medford, Mass. Despite spending more than $1 trillion on the war on drugs since 1970, America hasn’t been able to arrest its way out of its drug problem, or halt the flow of drugs, Cole said. In addition, the war has diverted needed police resources from violent crime work. Cole supports a system of legalized regulation of drugs that he says is more efficient and ethical than prohibition.
U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren of Wichita plans to write a rebuttal.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
From the Democratic response to President Bush’s State of the Union speech by Sen. James Webb of Virginia:
"Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On the political issues — those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life and death — we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm’s way.
"We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed us — sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it."
Posted by Randy Scholfield
After writing a column Friday weighing Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential prospects, I heard from half a dozen concerned readers passing along an e-mail letter they’d received that claims Obama is a secret Muslim, with radical terrorist ties!
This would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic and scurrilous. The e-mail is just a small taste of what right-wing smear artists have in store for Obama in the coming campaign.
For the record, Obama has been a practicing Christian for at least two decades. Here’s a site that thoroughly debunks the e-mail charges. A Washington Post story also finds no substance to them.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The Boeing Co.’s recent success under CEO James McNerney, including the addition if 13,000 jobs and rise of stock price from $25 to $88 a share, is an argument for globalization, according to columnist George F. Will. "Assuming that Boeing manages the supply chain — with 10 subcontractors on four continents — for a plane with 4 million parts, the 787 might solidify Boeing’s supremacy," he writes. Meanwhile, Will says, "Airbus is illustrating what happens when governments treat commercial enterprises as jobs programs and instruments of national glory."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Some around the state aren’t warming to the latest work by Wichita firm Greteman Group on behalf of the Kansas State Fair. Especially out of their cartoon context, the new taglines do give new meaning to the idea of an advertising come-on — "Hang With the Hogs," "Check Out the Studs" and "Pick Up Some Bunnies." And if the agency didn’t expect that reaction, it should have. But critics might want to note that with the help of the Greteman Group’s engaging "It’s a Wild Ride, Baby" marketing campaign, fair attendance was up nearly 6 percent last year.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Art Buchwald, the satirical columnist, died last week, his good humor and wisdom in his last months offering a profound lesson in how to face what he called "the topic no one wants to talk about" — death and dying.
Buchwald entered a hospice after choosing to reject kidney dialysis treatments, deciding that — for him, at age 80 — quality of life was more important than quantity. Then he surprised doctors and friends by living months longer than expected. He wrote and quipped right up until the end.
He said that he didn’t know what happens after death — nobody really does — and the important thing is how you live your life. "It’s what you do on Earth and the good deeds you do on Earth that are important."
In a society fearful of aging and death, Buchwald’s message of dignity and acceptance deserves a wide audience.
Here’s a clip of Buchwald talking about his death in a New York Times video obituary.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
