If Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice bumps into Iran’s top diplomat at the weekend conference for Iraq’s neighbors, there’s something new they could talk about, as if Iraq’s instability and Iran’s nuclear program weren’t enough. Iran won the State Department sweepstakes again last year for the title of the world’s “most active state sponsor” of terrorism. The report linked Iran to Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese terrorist groups and, increasingly, to Iraqi violence. Depressingly, it also noted that the world saw 25 percent more terrorist attacks in 2006 than in 2005, as well as 40 percent more deaths by terrorism. Last year Iraq alone was the site of 6,630 of 14,338 terrorist attacks and 13,340 of 20,498 terrorism deaths.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Are conservatives willing to expand government to control it? Some Republican state lawmakers are frustrated that they never get to give closer scrutiny to budget issues, such as baseline spending that goes largely unexamined each year.
“We can’t fix this problem here today,” Rep. Joe McLeland, R-Wichita, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, told the Associated Press.
But the group’s solution doesn’t sound very conservative: Extend the working days (and salaries) for lawmakers and staff by several months. In fact, that would head in the direction of a full-time Legislature.
Would having more time spur lawmakers to get down to business? Or just lead to even more procrastination and frivolous legislation? Just think of the damage lawmakers could do up in Topeka year-round.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
On our Tuesday Opinion pages, columnist Clarence Page reviews the Democratic presidential candidates’ first debate and expresses an opinion that got a lot of airtime on the weekend chat shows — that Barack Obama blew the commander-in-chief hypothetical. Asked about responding to a catastrophic al-Qaida attack in two U.S. cities, Hillary Clinton said, “I think a president must move as swiftly as is prudent to retaliate.” Obama’s Katrina-inspired answer was about emergency response, not payback. As Page put it: “The question was about national defense. In a moment that called for a blood-stirring vow to avenge America against all attackers, he seemed to change the subject.” Then again, is it ever wrong to think first about the welfare of the American people?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Paul Wolfowitz, the president of the World Bank, is calling the movement for his removal a “smear campaign” and has told a special bank panel that he acted in good faith when he arranged for his girlfriend’s pay raise and promotion.
When addressing the panel, Wolfowitz said, “I acted transparently, sought and received guidance from the bank’s ethics committee and conducted myself in good faith in accordance with that guidance.”
Who are these people on this ethics committee who gave him the advice that this would not be a conflict of interest? Fifth-graders?
President Bush is standing firm on Wolfowitz being innocent until proved guilty, stating Wolfowitz “ought to stay. He ought to be given a fair hearing.”
If Wolfowitz’s actions aren’t found to be at least ethically questionable, I don’t know what could be anymore.
Posted by Ross Stewart
Some of the GOP presidential front-runners “are so desperate to obtain power that they will say and do anything to win,” former Rep. John Le Boutillier wrote. “Do we need another Republican president who will say one thing to get nominated and then do something else?” he asked. He also contends that George W. Bush has driven voters from the Republican Party, just as Bill Clinton did for the Democratic Party. “We need new blood in both parties — and soon.”
Posted by Patrice Hein
Congratulations to the tenacious members of Wichita East High School’s Darfur Action Group for getting their message across to the Legislature about the genocide in Darfur. Their lobbying helped persuade the Senate and, last week, the House to pass the bill divesting the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System from companies tied to the Sudanese government. It puts Kansas among the states putting pressure on Sudan to stop enabling the slaughter. Anyone who still doubts the horror of this crisis — or the need for state lawmakers to respond — can hear one of the “lost boys” of Sudan, Valentino Achak Deng, speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday at East, 2301 E. Douglas.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
