Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline’s crusade against Planned Parenthood, reports conservative columnist Robert Novak, has inspired national anti-abortion leaders to "open a new front in the endless abortion wars," with Planned Parenthood as the target.
They are pressing Congress to withhold more than $300 million in federal funds from Planned Parenthood — about one-third of its operating budget — until the results are known of Kline’s recent 107-count indictment against the organization.
But as we argued in an editorialSaturday, the campaign targets federal funds that Planned Parenthood legally can use only for family planning services other than abortion. And it should worry those who value impartial justice that Kline’s legal war is linked to a national strategy that, in Novak’s words, "attempts to expand a Kansas criminal prosecution into a nationwide assault."
Posted by Randy Scholfield
"Republicans seeking to keep their party’s base intact, while appealing to independents in order to have a shot at defeating Hillary, are taking another look at John McCain," wrote Kate O’Beirne for National Review. She argues that, contrary to the perception of many Republicans, national polls show that McCain does slightly better than Rudy Giuliani in a head-to-head match with Clinton. "McCain is as likely to win as Giuliani — and his positions on the issues are in closer accord with those of Republican voters," she wrote.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The party in charge of Congress changed, but the appetite for freebies apparently didn’t. Despite new House restrictions on travel paid by lobbyists, lawmakers have accepted nearly $1.9 million worth of free trips this year, more than all of last year, USA Today reported. Part of the reason for the increase is that last year’s total was low because lawmakers were worried about what voters would think about the free trips. There is also an exception in the new travel restrictions that allows lawmakers to accept free trips for stays of only one or two nights. USA Today reported that 22 House Democrats and three Republicans accepted nearly $40,000 in travel under that exception.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Hollywood is working on a movie based on the story of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller. It sounds as if the movie is portraying the Miller character as a hero who was willing to go to jail rather than reveal her sources. But will it also show the Miller character being used by the administration to get uncritical news stories published about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction? Will it show her helping sell a war?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Kansas is the worst state in the nation for getting Social Security disability claims, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. Kansas has nearly 15,000 waiting for a decision about their disability claims, according to the American Association of People With Disabilities and Allsup Inc. In Wichita, the wait is nearly 17 months.
The Social Security Administration wants to try a pilot program in Kansas City that would close the Social Security offices to customers on Wednesdays so that staff could work on existing cases. But the idea doesn’t fly with Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Topeka: “We are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to backlogs, and now you are going to tell the good people of Kansas that you are going to close offices one day a week.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
