Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., stirred up an ethics storm for himself by threatening Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., on the House floor, promising to pay back Rogers for opposing a $23 million earmark for the National Drug Intelligence Center in Murtha’s district. Murtha’s alleged threat — to deny Rogers’ district any earmarked spending projects — would violate the new Democrat-backed House rules, and Rogers unsuccessfully sought a rebuke of Murtha over it on Wednesday. But that was Murtha’s second recent floor outburst. Earlier this month, he similarly went after Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, in a floor exchange blurrily recorded by C-SPAN and now viewable on YouTube.com and in a blistering anti-Murtha ad by the National Republican Congressional Committee. As the Hill newspaper described it, “Murtha vented his anger against Tiahrt for voting to kill NDIC by unleashing a loud, finger-jabbing, spittle-spraying piece of his mind”; his threat against Tiahrt involved pulling support for any Boeing deal involving new military refueling tankers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has defended Murtha’s reputation over the incidents, but they will test whether she and other Democratic leaders are serious about ethics reform.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“In a year when Congress will be authorizing more than half a trillion dollars in national security spending, there is no excuse for keeping the National Guard on perilously short rations,” a New York Times editorial argued. It noted that despite manpower and equipment shortages, Kansas fortunately had enough Guard members to respond to the Greensburg tornado. “But if the next disaster is a Category 5 hurricane, a terrorist attack or a nationwide flu epidemic, we fear the Guard will not be ready.” And with good reason. The editorial noted: “More than 25,000 National Guard troops are now serving in Iraq, and that number is expected to rise significantly as part of President Bush’s troop buildup. Nearly 5,000 are in Afghanistan and roughly 6,000 are stationed along the Mexican border. Because of equipment left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan, domestically based Guard units have only 40 percent of the equipment they need for disaster response. Nearly 90 percent of stateside Guard units are rated less than fully ready because of equipment and training shortfalls.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
A new national ranking shows what Wichitans have long known: Our city is a great place for families. The 2007 report from Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation concluded that Wichita was the second best place for families to relocate among metropolitan areas between 575,000 and 1.25 million in population (we were edged out only by Knoxville, Tenn.). In addition to considering home and rental prices and taxes, the report also evaluated education and quality-of-life factors such as arts and culture, crime rates, air quality and physicians per capita.
In today’s mobile society in which workers are looking to balance job and family needs, Wichita leaders shouldn’t be shy about sharing our ranking. They should shout it from our very affordable rooftops.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
No doubt some Americans will be upset by the Senate voting overwhelmingly Thursday to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the United States. But they are in the minority — albeit a vocal one. According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, a large majority of Americans support allowing illegal immigrants to gain legal status (62 percent) and to get renewable guest-worker visas if they pay fines and pass background checks (67 percent) — two key provisions of the immigration reform bill before Congress. Most Americans understand that rounding up and shipping out millions of illegal immigrants wouldn’t be practical or good for our economy.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
New veterans between the ages of 20 and 24 have an unemployment rate of 10.4 percent in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of the veterans have little or no professional work experience outside of the military.
Though there are a wide array of programs and job fairs geared toward finding these men and women employment, the jobs they provide are mostly low-paying, often forcing the vets to take pay cuts.
In an article on Time.com, veteran David Hughes said, “The stress factor here is real different. There, I was worried about the dying, but that was it. They give you a plan and you do it. Here at home I have so many more things to worry about.”
Posted by Andie Clum
President Bush failure to buckle up while driving a pickup on his Texas ranch last weekend made a nice talking point for those covering law enforcement’s pre-Memorial Day seat belt campaign, known as “Click It or Ticket.” And the Texas Department of Public Safety’s focus this year happens to be on pickups, which are twice as likely as passenger cars to roll in fatal crashes. Bush’s bad example aside, assured White House spokesman Tony Snow on Tuesday, “We encourage everybody to wear their seat belts.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
President Bush got what he wanted, as Congress passed a war-funding bill without a timetable for withdrawal. But unless there is significant progress in Iraq in the next few months, he can expect an even bigger battle when this funding runs out on Sept. 30. And the majority of Americans won’t be on his side. In fact, they already aren’t. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll found support for the war at its lowest level yet, with 61 percent of Americans saying that we should have stayed out of Iraq and 76 percent believing things are going badly there. Most Americans also support a timetable for withdrawal, with 63 percent saying the United States should set a date for withdrawing troops from Iraq sometime in 2008. How long can a war continue if the public doesn’t support it?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The new Pew survey of Muslim Americans finds that they are generally satisfied with their communities and more moderate in their beliefs than Muslims in Western Europe — both reasons why they have more successfully assimilated here.
But the survey also revealed that 47 percent of respondents identified themselves as Muslims first and Americans second, and only 40 percent believe that groups of Arabs carried out the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Moreover, 15 percent of Muslim Americans under age 30 said they believe that suicide bombings often or sometimes can be justified in defense of Islam.
There’s no denying that those numbers are disturbing.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The war of words continues between Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg over access to gun records.
Bloomberg has blamed the so-called Tiahrt amendment, which restricts access to federal gun-record trace data, for preventing local police departments from going after bad-apple firearms dealers — and he’s gone so far as to run TV ads in Wichita accusing Tiahrt of endangering public safety.
Tiahrt maintains that the restrictions are needed to protect undercover investigations.
Although they’ve made some efforts in recent months to negotiate, the two sides seem as far apart as ever, judging from an article in the New York Sun in which Tiahrt fired back at Bloomberg’s campaign: “I think it’s a self-serving effort to put a political agenda above the safety of our law enforcement officers.”
Bloomberg’s office countered that Tiahrt is the one with an agenda: shielding firearms dealers at the behest of the National Rifle Association: “If Todd Tiahrt is worried about protecting gun dealers who are violating the law, then we have to part ways,” said John Feinblatt, Bloomberg’s criminal justice coordinator.
Neither side seems willing to back down. But isn’t there a way to share the data with local police without endangering undercover cops? After all, before the Tiahrt amendment passed in 2003, the records were routinely shared, with no evidence that any officer was placed in danger.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Hurricane season starts on June 1, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency admits it isn’t ready. Not only are emergency response plans not completed, the levees that failed in New Orleans in 2005 are still not up to code. The director of the National Hurricane Center, which is responsible for predicting and tracking hurricanes, complained about not having enough resources. And as was our own governor recently noted, the National Guard is missing people and equipment needed for emergency responses.
While states are preparing on their own, citizens along the east and Gulf coasts must be wondering if FEMA and the United States will be there to back them up. Don’t count on it.
Posted by Andie Clum
One moment in the first GOP presidential debate has been little discussed — when 7 of 10 candidates nixed the idea of changing the Constitution to allow naturalized citizens (such as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican National Committee chairman Mel Martinez) to run for president. Only Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee said yes; John McCain said maybe. Frank Rich of the New York Times saw this as pandering to the anti-immigration fervor in the nation. But is that link clear? Isn’t reluctance to amend the Constitution a valid reason?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
More than five months after they were presented, the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations are finally finding favor in the Bush administration. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and others are developing plans that would emphasize political rather than military progress in Iraq, as the group urged. As it also recommended, the new approach would focus on regional diplomacy and training Iraqi security forces. About time.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, proudly posed Wednesday with their new grandson, Samuel David Cheney. Their lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, gave birth to the baby and will raise him with her longtime partner, Heather Poe.
To his credit, Cheney has always been consistent in his support for gay relationships, saying during the 2004 campaign that "freedom means freedom for everyone." But the baby is a potent reminder of the extent to which politics is personal.
When those involved are family, you tend to want the best for them, and a chance for dignity and a full life, whether they’re straight or gay.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The British are reporting no significant problems since their integration and acceptance of gays in the military in 2000. The process has gone rather smoothly and hasn’t sparked the problems of harassment, blackmail, discord or bullying that many thought would occur.
So is it time for the United States to do the same and allow openly gay soldiers in the military? Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thinks so. He told the New York Times that when the military is stretched so thin, the United States “must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job.”
So now it’s OK because we really need them?
Gen. Peter Pace, current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune in March that he supports the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays because he thinks homosexuality is immoral.
Posted by Andie Clum
In her testimony before Congress Wednesday, Monica Goodling, the former White House liaison for the Justice Department, denied any involvement in creating the list of eight U.S. attorneys allegedly fired for political — not performance — reasons. “I did not hold the keys to the kingdom,” she said.
Which leaves the question: Who did hold the keys? Why do we still not know the circumstances surrounding how the list was created and by whom? With all the denials and stonewalling going on, is it really credible at this point to think the White House wasn’t involved?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The presidential candidates’ financial disclosures so far will give voters some perspective on where and what these people are coming from. As a commentary by Michael Goodwin on Wednesday’s Opinion pages put it: “Consider that Democrat Barack Obama, worth more than $1 million, is the pauper in the top-tier club. Republican Mitt Romney tops the fortune fortunate with a stash estimated at $250 million.” Romney could be outmoneyed, though, should the GOP race gain New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, estimated to be worth $5.5 billion to more than $20 billion. Meanwhile, median family income in American in 2005 was $46,326. As Goodwin asks of the millionaires who would be president: “Can they relate to the average American? Are they too rich to understand the struggles of the people they want to serve?”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Wichita school board’s recently completed memorandum of understanding with the Wichita Police Department on school resource officers gives police the sole authority to determine how and when Tasers are deployed in schools. This deferral to police on the actual rules of engagement probably makes sense: Why would school officials micromanage officers’ use of standard equipment they normally carry, whether batons or Tasers?
Still, dealing with adolescent teens in a school setting raises the bar of sensitivity and good judgment. Because Tasers are potentially lethal — a homeless woman in Oklahoma City died last week after having been stunned by a Taser — police should use Tasers on students only when absolutely necessary.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
In declaring that Rudy Giuliani won the second GOP presidential debate, Time magazine’s Joe Klein counted Sam Brownback among the six also-rans, then got painfully specific about why he thinks Kansas’ senior senator is likely to lose even the battle of the religious conservatives to the “colorful and funny” Mike Huckabee: “Brownback appears bland, by comparison, young and not very authoritative, a Senator who seems like a member of the House.” Ouch.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Their anti-war base doesn’t like it, but Democratic leaders faced political reality in dropping from the Iraq war-funding bill their demand for a timetable for removing troops. President Bush won’t accept a timetable. They don’t have enough votes to override him. And unless lawmakers are willing to withhold funding — which most are not — they needed a new approach. That new approach includes progress benchmarks for the Iraqi government and new reporting requirements for the Bush administration. Critics complain that the benchmarks aren’t enforceable. But the governmental and military results will be key to debate when this funding bill expires on Sept. 30. And if there isn’t much progress between now and then, Bush and GOP lawmakers will be hard-pressed to keep asking for more time.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Former White House liaison Monica Goodling finally testified today about the firing of U.S. attorneys — after she was granted immunity. But she didn’t deliver the smoking gun that many Democrats had hoped for. She said she had little role in the firings and mostly pointed the finger at Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty. She said that she didn’t talk about the firings to former White House counsel Harriet Miers or with political adviser Karl Rove.
Goodling did admit that she improperly considered the political loyalties of job applicants for career prosecutors. But she claimed that the violation of federal law was not intended. Huh? Shouldn’t the person helping hire federal prosecutors know what is allowable?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
