Daily Archives: May 28, 2007

Open thread

May 28, 20071:05 a.m.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Open thread | Comments (87)

Pause and remember this Memorial Day

May 28, 20071:03 a.m.

In 1971, Congress identified the last Monday in May as a national Memorial Day. It now stands as the time to honor those Americans who have died in all of the nation’s wars.
All told, it’s a sobering list:
The 4,400 in the American Revolution. The 2,200 in the War of 1812. The 13,200 in the Mexican War of 1846-48.
The 640,000 Union forces and 133,000 Confederate soldiers in the Civil War.
The 2,400 in the Spanish-American War (1898).
The 116,000 in World War I.
More than 400,000 in World War II.
The 36,000 in the Korean War.
The 58,000 in Vietnam.
Nearly 150 in the Persian Gulf War.
And now, nearly 400 in Afghanistan and nearly 3,500 in Iraq.
These young Americans once again are “risking their lives in liberty’s defense,” observed former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole in dedicating the National World War II Memorial three Mays ago. In doing so, “they are the latest link in a chain of sacrifice older than America itself.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under American life | Comments (47)

Next abortion push will be informed consent laws

May 28, 20071:01 a.m.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding the ban on partial-birth abortions is likely to lead to a push for enhanced “informed consent” laws in states, the New York Times reported. That’s because the court’s majority opinion said that because some women who have abortions can subsequently experience severe depression and loss of esteem, “the state has an interest in ensuring so grave a choice is well informed.”
But opponents argue — and the court opinion acknowledged — that there is no reliable data showing that abortions hurt women. As a result, requiring women to receive counseling or get a sonogram before they can get an abortion may be more ideologically than medically motivated.
For example, South Dakota’s informed consent law, which is currently being challenged, requires a woman seeking an abortion to be told that the procedure will terminate a “whole, separate, unique, living human being.”
That’s not about protecting women. It’s about trying to guilt them into changing their minds.
Posted by Andie Clum

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Abortion | Comments (225)

Roberts — adored or vulnerable?

May 28, 20071:00 a.m.

The clock is ticking on 2008. But Kansas Democrats still promise a viable challenger to Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., for once — somebody to give “people a choice between the mainstream, commonsense leadership of Kansas Democrats and somebody who’s been a rubber stamp for the Bush administration,” said Mike Gaughan, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party.
Don’t bother, says the Kansas GOP.
“He’s absolutely adored throughout the state. Frankly, I think the Democrats would be foolish to go after Sen. Roberts considering how popular he is, even among Democrats,” said Christian Morgan, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Kansas delegation | Comments (30)