Some think Sunday’s church shooting in Colorado is a prime example of why gun liberties are important.
At Colorado Springs’ New Life Church, volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam (in photo) is said to have saved "untold" lives when she shot gunman Matthew Murray. Carrying almost 1,000 rounds of ammunition, Murray had the potential to cause widespread death, but killed just two before he was taken down by Assam.
Assam, a former police officer, was permitted to carry a gun, while security guards at Westroads Mall in Omaha, where eight people were killed, were not.
Posted by Kristin Mehler
ABC News aired a bombshell interview on Monday: Retired CIA agent John Kiriakou appeared on camera to give details, for the first time, about the capture and waterboarding of al-Qaida detainees in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
In the interview, Kiriakou appeared to still be wrestling with the morality of waterboarding, which he said he now believes is torture but was "necessary" at the time and successful, he said, in extracting information and foiling several emerging plots.
"What happens if we don’t waterboard a person, and we don’t get that nugget of information, and there’s an attack?" Kiriakou said. "I would have trouble forgiving myself."
If that’s the loose standard, then why not torture when you capture any terrorist suspect? Why not pull out their fingernails one by one? This is the slippery moral slope the CIA has gone down.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Mulvane residents are gearing up for a fight, but it looks like the turnpike interchange at Mulvane is the safest bet for where a new Sumner County casino will go.
Wellington residents want the casino more, but among the Mulvane site benefits: Closer to Wichita means more visitors and hence more tax revenue for Sumner County and the state (and Sedgwick County, too, which gets 1 percent of revenue).
Moreover, the Mulvane site proposals are from the two most prestigious casino companies, Harrah’s and MGM Mirage. Has anyone heard of Marvel Gaming? Penn National?
Many folks in Sedgwick County will sympathize with hundreds of Mulvane residents who have signed a petition opposing a casino nearby.
But the casino decision — to be made by Sumner County commissioners this week, with a final decision by a state review board next May — likely will come down to which location offers the biggest payout for state and local governments.
In fact, Kansas’ gambling law seems to require it, saying the choice will be based on which casino “best maximizes revenue, encourages tourism and otherwise serves the interests of the people of Kansas.â€
Mulvane has the clear edge.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was one of a handful of congressional leaders briefed by the CIA in 2002 about the harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, being used on detainees.
Current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was another. No one objected at the time, according to the Washington Post’s sources — and two of the lawmakers urged CIA officials to go further to extract information from prisoners.
Roberts’ office has declined comment.
But the revelations suggest a bipartisan failure in Congress to practice oversight to stop or even question practices widely seen as illegal torture.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
In February 2003, American defense contractors Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes, and Marc Gonsalves were shot down over Colombia while conducting a counternarcotics mission. After 4½ years and promises that the United States would “never give up†until they were home, the three were believed to be dead –until video footage of them was recently released.
The footage, which also shows French-Colombian citizen Ingrid Betancourt, has stirred outrage and sympathy in France, with French officials leaning on the Colombian government for her safe release.
Their efforts for a woman who wasn’t even born in their country are contrasted with the current lack of outrage from the United States, which has three citizens still in captivity after almost five years.
Posted by Kristin Mehler
The U.S. Supreme Court decided 7-2 Monday that judges may use discretion for sentences related to crack cocaine, which further addresses the injustice of disparate sentencing guidelines for crack and powder cocaine. Dissenting Justice Samuel Alito said that because of this and another Tuesday decision, “Sentencing disparities will gradually increase.†But if it ever made sense for Congress to consider possessing crack — a drug of the poor — 100 times worse than possessing the same amount of powder cocaine, it no longer does.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“My wife told me I’m doing well in a recent poll in New Mexico. I asked her how, since I’m never there. I’m always out of the state campaigning for president. And she told me that’s exactly why I’m doing well.†— New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
“‘Ann, did you in your wildest dreams see me running for president?’ . . . She says, ‘You weren’t in my wildest dreams.’†— Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
Posted by Rhonda Holman
