The new National Intelligence Estimate doesn’t present an encouraging outlook for Iraq. It indicates that the United States has little control over what happens and that there is a strong possibility that the security situation "will continue to deteriorate at rates comparable to the latter part of 2006," the Washington Post reported. And even if Iraqi and coalition forces are able to reduce the level of violence — a big "if" — "Iraqi leaders will be hard-pressed to achieve sustained political reconciliation."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Leave it to French President Jacques Chirac to send mixed signals to Iran about its nuclear ambitions. Chirac said in an interview Monday that he didn’t think that Iran having one or two nuclear weapons would pose a big danger. But Tuesday he tried to retract what he had said, claiming that it was spoken casually and quickly because he thought it was off the record, the New York Times reported. His administration also released a heavily edited transcript of the first interview that deleted his nuke comments and inserted a line that Chirac never said during the interview, about how he didn’t see a scenario that could justify Iran getting an atomic bomb. What’s up, Jacques?
Posted by Philliip Brownlee
I received three urban legend e-mails in the past week. One was about how the liberal media didn’t report on Billy Graham leading people through the streets of New Orleans (that’s because it never happened). Another was a Paul Harvey commentary on how Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is linked to the Black Panthers (Harvey never said it, and the claim isn’t true). The third was an Andy Rooney commentary about all the Christian symbols on federal government buildings (Rooney didn’t write it, and much of the information is inaccurate).
Another e-mail making the rounds recently was about how Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has ties to terrorists.
It seems like all the urban legend e-mails that I get (including an oldie but goody about how Procter & Gamble is satanic) are trying to appeal to conservative Christians. Is that true of most of these e-mail hoaxes, or do these just happen to be the ones that people forward to me? Do liberals have their share of hoax e-mails?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
“I don’t think this war can be sustained for more than six months if in fact we don’t see some progress,” Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., told Associated Press this week. But Roberts supports the surge, subject to establishing benchmarks, and wants to give Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, a chance to succeed. “People trust this military, and I think they trust Petraeus,” Roberts said. “He is the right man at the right time for a very, very difficult job.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Considering the anti-immigrant fervor out there, it was inevitable that some legislators would try again to repeal the 2004 law that allows eligible children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state universities. Last year, a proposed repeal was like a horror-movie villain that refused to die, returning to the House floor half a dozen times before succumbing. Rep. Lance Kinzer (in photo), R-Olathe, hopes new House members will make 2007 a different story. “I personally believe our current posture is violative of federal statute and arguably violative of equal protection in the U.S. Constitution,” Kinzer told Harris News Service. “Beyond that, it’s just bad public policy to have a law in place where we provide a specific benefit to a noncitizen that we don’t provide to someone from Missouri.” What Kinzer and other rollback advocates ignore is that “someone from Missouri” hasn’t attended a Kansas high school for at least three years, as have those kids being helped by this commonsense and life-changing law.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Wichita City Council member Sue Schlapp insists she likes green space and bike paths, and is not trying to kill the proposed 17th Street rail-trail project that would run through northeast Wichita.
She told The Eagle editorial board Monday that she has tried to “look at all sides,” and that includes the objections of some homeowners along the route.
More important, she said, she wants to wait for the upcoming release of a Wichita Area Metropolitan Planning Organization regional pathways study to see whether the project serves the overall recreational needs of the city and region.
In the meantime, she says she’s keeping an open mind.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
