Even if President Bush’s new proposal to set global emission goals is a smoke screen, it puts the administration on record in acknowledging the need to reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions and wanting to be part of a global solution. As British Prime Minister Tony Blair noted, that’s "a big step forward."
Bush said today that he wants 15 major nations — which, unlike the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, would include China and India — to agree to emission-reduction targets by the end of next year. "The United States takes this issue seriously," he said.
But environmental groups are understandably skeptical, given the administration track record of foot-dragging. "This is a transparent effort to divert attention from the president’s refusal to accept any emissions-reductions proposals at next week’s G-8 summit," said National Environmental Trust president Philip Clapp.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Fred Thompson asked to be let out of his "Law and Order" duties Wednesday, seemingly a sign that the former Tennessee senator will bring to 11 the number of white men running for the GOP presidential nomination. Fittingly, a Thompson spokesman said, "Stay tuned." Some see Ronald Reagan in his style and ideology, but conservatives could cool when they look harder at his eight-year Senate record (including support for campaign-finance reform and a vote against impeaching Bill Clinton). He also has been divorced, and has a second wife 25 years his junior.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Bush administration officials have been putting out the word that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was two days late getting to Greensburg after the tornado struck because she was attending a jazz festival in New Orleans, columnist Robert Novak reported. But that’s not the real story, said Nicole Corcoran, the governor’s press secretary.
Yes, Sebelius was in New Orleans with her family when the tornado hit that Friday evening. But she was notified that night about the tornado, and she and her staff in Kansas immediately began trying to assess the damage. When the scope of the disaster became clear, they began making arrangements for her return.
Sebelius didn’t attend any of the jazz festival and left her family in New Orleans, flying back Saturday afternoon using a plane arranged by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Sebelius didn’t go to Greensburg until Sunday, Corcoran said, because Kansas National Guard Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting told her it would be best to wait until then. That way she wouldn’t disrupt ongoing rescue efforts.
You can’t control where you are when an emergency hits, Corcoran noted. And she said that Sebelius wouldn’t have gone to Greensburg any sooner if she had been in Topeka when the storm struck.
"We absolutely did the right thing," Corcoran said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Cindy Sheehan helped and hurt her anti-war cause by both motivating and alienating the public. She has been camping outside President Bush’s Texas ranch of and off since 2005, following the death of her son, Casey, who was killed in Iraq.
She expressed some bitterness and frustration in announcingthis week that she would no longer be a full-time activist: "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives."
Maybe Peace Mom was a little loony. But maybe she was just ahead of her time.
Posted by Andie Clum
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s continued effort to keep Arkansas City-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef from testing all its cattle for mad cow disease is downright un-American. A federal judge ruled in March that Creekstone could begin testing all its cattle Friday. But the USDA is now appealing the ruling, which puts the testing on hold. Creekstone wants to go beyond the USDA standard and test all its cattle, because that’s what its overseas market demands. And if Creekstone and its customers are willing to pay for the testing, they should be free to do it. This is America, isn’t it?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Tobacco use is down from 42 percent of adults in 1964 to 21 percent of adults now, according to a new study by the Institute of Medicine, but the death toll is still disturbingly high. Tobacco-related illnesses kill an estimated 440,000 U.S. citizens every year. That’s 1,205 people a day.
The institute wants the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products and how much nicotine is in them to help smokers break their addictions. It also suggested raising taxes almost $2 a pack, requiring insurance plans to fund smoking-cessation programs, and banning smoking in most nonresidential, indoor locations.
As our editorial Tuesday noted, the study could also lend support to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ proposal to raise state tobacco taxes by 50 cents to help cover the state’s uninsured.
Considering the number of people who die every day, tobacco is a real weapon of mass destruction — and should be treated as such.
Posted by Andie Clum
