It wasn’t any one act of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that sealed his fate — his resignation, announced today. His serial missteps on terrorist surveillance, U.S. attorney firings, political hiring and more, compounded by his inability to explain himself to the satisfaction of Congress, had eroded the credibility of his Justice Department to the point that even Republicans were no longer defending him. One comfort — that the president decided against nominating Gonzales to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he might have served for life.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
"One thing that has always baffled me about the Bush team’s war effort in Iraq and against al-Qaida is this: How could an administration that was so good at Swift-boating its political opponents at home be so inept at Swift-boating its geopolitical opponents abroad?
"How could the Bush team Swift-boat John Kerry and Max Cleland — authentic Vietnam war heroes, whom the White House turned into surrendering pacifists in the war on terror — but never manage to Swift-boat Osama bin Laden, a genocidal monster, who today is still regarded in many quarters as the vanguard of anti-American ‘resistance.’"
– New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on how bin Laden has a better image in the Middle East than America does
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Michael Dukakis says if Democrats want to win the White House next year, they need to organize in every precinct in America, all 185,000 of them. He told the New York Observer: “We’re not going to outspend the other guys. We’re probably not going to outstrategize them. And some crazy guy will blow up a building with three weeks to go, you know, and then we’ll be back in Bush-land again.” Dukakis, the governor of Massachusetts when he lost the presidential race to George H.W. Bush in 1988, now teaches at Northeastern University in Boston.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
A federal judge last week sided with environmental groups in finding that the Bush administration has violated the law by failing to issue updated reports on global warming and its impact on the nation’s environment, as required by Congress.
It’s just the latest evidence of the Bush team’s obfuscation and active suppression of global warming science.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Kansas isn’t a bad place for a business to be sued, coming in at No. 13 in the Institute for Legal Reform’s latest ranking of state lawsuit climates. Kansas has moved up three places in two years, according to the survey conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, because of improved perceptions of judges’ impartiality and competence, and handling of scientific and technical evidence, among other things. And for judges’ competence and juries’ predictability, Kansas came in fifth. Overall, West Virginia was deemed worst, Delaware best. Nebraska and Iowa were third and fourth, respectively.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Good for Visioneering Wichita for forming a new group focused on adult basic education. The Literate Community Strategic Alliance, which meets today for the first time, will plan how best to deliver adult education services such as language, reading and math instruction and preparation for high school equivalency testing. Sedgwick County Commissioner Tim Norton, who is spearheading the effort, told The Eagle editorial board that this work benefits the entire community, because raising the intellectual capital of our citizens better positions us to grow in an increasingly knowledge-based economy.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
