A day after shooting himself in the foot with remarks about Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Joe Biden is still trying to stop the bleeding.
In an interview on Wednesday, the first official day of his presidential campaign, Biden described Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Which raised a lot of eyebrows, and a lot of questions about Biden’s opinion of earlier candidates such as Alan Keyes, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
On "The Daily Show" later that night, Biden tried to control the damage — and succeeded mostly in handing Jon Stewart an arsenal of laugh lines.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins was a force to be reckoned with in punditry and politics, especially as the man she dubbed "Shrub" rose to the White House. So it was painful to see news of her death Wednesday at age 62, just two weeks after declaring in a column that "we are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war."
As her death underscored how singular her talent was, it brought back the potent words she offered for her female fans of a certain age in December 1999, when she’d just been diagnosed with breast cancer. "I don’t need get-well cards, but I would like the beloved women readers to do something for me: Go. Get. The. Damn. Mammogram. Done."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
State Sen. Donald Betts (in photo), D-Wichita, is taking some fire for calling on the Kansas Legislature to approve a resolution opposing President Bush’s troop surge in Iraq. Some state GOP stalwarts see it as an attack on the president. Others argue that the war is a national issue and beyond the jurisdiction of state lawmakers.
But Betts says he’s just listening to his constituents. “We have many Kansans who are leaving the state to fight in Iraq — and citizens are concerned,” he told The Eagle editorial board Tuesday.
He said he’s heard from families of soldiers who are facing financial burdens because of long deployments. Why shouldn’t state leaders “bring this to the attention of the president”?
The resolution isn’t likely to get out of hearings. Still, it’s hard to fault Betts’ contention that the Iraq war affects the lives of many Kansans and thus is a legitimate concern for lawmakers.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
State lawmakers who’d like to give their elderly constituents a break, via a constitutional amendment to cap future property-tax increases on senior citizens, are learning that doing so is more complicated and costly than it sounds. State and local officials fret about the hit that revenues would take and warn it would force increases in other taxes. The break would disproportionately benefit seniors in high-dollar real-estate markets. Then there was this worthy point from Randall Allen, executive director of the Kansas Association of Counties: “We would argue that being 65 and older does not equate to be unable to pay property taxes.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
If there’s one thing more aggravating to drivers and affected businesses than a massive street construction project, it’s snow and ice on top of a massive street construction project. Traffic flow slowed further Wednesday as the mazelike sites on East Central, at Hillside and Douglas, and elsewhere took another hit from Mother Nature. When you’re inching along a snow-packed, narrowed street past orange cones and idled road equipment, it’s hard not to question the city’s decision last year to bid and build so many more projects than usual rather than lose federal funding.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius recently touted energy conservation as the easiest way to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and called on state government to lead the way by adopting energy-saving features and practices in state buildings.
California, not surprisingly, is looking at even more ambitious energy conservation steps: One lawmaker has proposed a state ban by 2012 on the incandescent lightbulb in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs, which last 13 times longer and use only a quarter of the energy of conventional bulbs.
It sounds far-out, but in fact, compact bulb technology has become economical and gone mainstream: Wal-Mart has pledged to sell 100 million of them.
Consider that 20 percent of home-energy needs are for lights, and you see the possibilities.
This is an example of a ready-for-market new technology that could help reduce greenhouse emissions by reducing demand for old technology such as coal-fired plants.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
