In testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey showed right away why he’s likely to be confirmed, by disavowing the 2002 Justice Department memo asserting that the president could issue orders that violate the Geneva Conventions and international and U.S. anti-torture laws. Then there was this reassuring statement: "Partisan politics plays no part in either the bringing of charges or the timing of charges." And if the president ignores his counsel in favor of another course? "I would try to talk him out of it or leave," the former federal judge said. Sounds like Mukasey is on track to be Bush’s third attorney general and the nation’s 81st.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It’s disturbing to hear that new strains of drug-resistant staph germs might be killing 18,650 Americans each year — more than AIDS — and that up to half of these infections are being contracted in the health care system, according to a new study.
The incidence rate of 32 potentially deadly infections per 100,000 people was called "astounding" by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The findings only underscore what health officials have been saying for years: Hospitals and other providers need to limit the use of antibiotics to preserve their effectiveness. Better hand washing and hygiene by health workers will be another important line of defense.
This is a wake-up call for the health care industry.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Kudos to President Bush for going ahead with a planned meeting Tuesday with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, over the bitter objections of Chinese leaders.
“We solemnly demand that the U.S. cancel the extremely wrong arrangements,” said the Chinese foreign minister of plans by Congress to honor the Dalai Lama with a Congressional Gold Medal.
China isn’t in a position to demand or dictate whom the United States chooses to honor. To most of the civilized world, the Dalai Lama is a revered moral leader and symbol of Tibetan independence from Chinese tyranny.
Honoring him sends a strong message that the United States values human rights and political and religious freedom. Those bedrock principles aren’t negotiable.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
In a commentary in the Washington Post, 12 former Army captains call for a decision from Washington: Either pull out of Iraq or reinstate the draft.
The Iraqi government is corrupt, they say, and its military unable to succeed on its own; any plan to continue U.S. missions in Iraq would have to include the reinstatement of the draft.
The only other option the group sees is the immediate abandonment of the country. The captains warn against scaling back American troops, saying it will only make remaining troops more vulnerable and invite immediate civil war.
The captains demand an immediate decision, saying, “While our generals pursue a strategy dependent on peace breaking out, the Iraqis prepare for their war — and our servicemen and women, and their families, continue to suffer.”
Posted by Kristin Mehler
If Wichita wants to remain the Air Capital, it must make sure that well-trained workers are available as the aviation manufacturers need them. So the overflowing classes in the Wichita Area Technical College’s aviation training programs and Cowley College’s airframe and power plant program are excellent news. So is the nearly 100 percent hiring rate of Cowley’s A&P graduates. It all signals that the sooner Sedgwick County’s $40 million Jabara Airport training facility opens, the better for the local economy long term.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board breezed right past Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize with an eye to next year. And its should-be winners are: Burmese monks. Zimbabwe opposition leaders. A pro-democracy Catholic priest arrested in Vietnam. Co-founders of the League of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Garry Kasparov and others resisting Russian President Vladimir Putin. The people of Iraq. Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern and the voters of Northern Ireland. Or Chinese bloggers, Egyptian democracy advocates, Lebanese citizens assassinated by Syria and those who help North Koreans escape.
Other ideas, bloggers?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“If any of you would like to come to my state, please come. We’d love to have you. I remember the Jewish Republican Society of Kansas. Great guy. Then he moved back to New York and that was it.” — Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., going for laughs as well as votes at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Presidential Forum Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Posted by Rhonda Holman