We should know Friday whether Al Gore will look on 2007 as the year he won an Oscar, an Emmy and the Nobel Peace Prize for his global warming warnings. Even so, the big mystery remains whether the former vice president will respond to the growing cry of "Run, Al, Run," including a new song by that name. Some close to Gore are doubtful he’ll change his mind, but as one blogger observed about all the pleading: "Mr. Gore has not said to stop."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Democrats went over the top by tapping a brain-injured 12-year-old to respond to President Bush’s Sept. 29 radio address about the State Children’s Health Insurance Program veto. But shame on Republicans for fighting back by attacking Graeme Frost (in photo) and his family in blogs and e-mails, spreading misinformation about their finances, their Baltimore home and even their kitchen countertops (they’re concrete, not granite). And about criticism that they could have afforded their own health insurance: The Frosts told the New York Times of having been turned away by three insurers recently because of pre-existing conditions.
If Graeme falls short as a poster child for the need for government-funded health care for lower-income kids, there’s another Maryland 12-year-old, Deamonte Driver, who died in February from an untreated toothache.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Bush administration has long been pushing the Afghanistan government to clean its farmlands of opium poppies. Opium production in the country is up 34 percent from last year, and the United Nations estimates that Afghanistan produces 93 percent of the world’s opium and heroin, funding the Taliban movement.
But spraying herbicides on the poppies, which provide some Afghans’ income, could chase more locals into the Taliban’s arms and upset Afghanistan’s already fragile hold on stability.
Posted by Kristin Mehler
If Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby rejects the proposal to build two new coal-fired power plants near Holcomb, he will go against the advice of his staff. Bremby told a legislative panel — which was formed to pressure him to approve the project — that KDHE staff recommended granting the permit. Then again, if Bremby approves it, he will go against the personal stance of his boss, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, and the protests of attorneys general from eight states and environmental groups concerned about the amount of carbon dioxide the plants will produce. So far, Bremby isn’t giving good hints which way he is leaning — only that he expects to make the decision by the end of this month. Maybe after this job, Bremby should go to work for the CIA.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The federal government is still overspending, but it is making significant headway at reducing the budget deficit, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Congressional Budget Office now estimates that the deficit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 will be about $161 billion. That’s still significant, but it’s a 35 percent drop from the previous fiscal year. And the deficit as a share of the economy is down to 1.2 percent, or about half the average of the past 50 years.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
What to make of the news that the new lobbyist for Topeka USD 501 is Doug Mays, former Kansas House speaker and harsh critic of the public school lawsuit? "Most folks will think it’s ironic," said school board president Doug Glenn. The Topeka Capital-Journal editorial board called it "brilliant," because of Mays’ experience and know-how. Mays said of the hiring, which follows a similar flip-flop on expanded gambling: "I spent most of my political career surprising people and surprising myself sometimes. I do what I think is right. Sometimes it doesn’t necessarily fit the mold people try to put me in."
The thing is, it wasn’t so long ago that Mays thought it was right to say school-funding lawsuit attorney Alan Rupe could "shove it up his a–" (a comment that won our "Great Moments in Kansas Oratory" Award for 2006).
Posted by Rhonda Holman