The U.S. Air Force’s stunning decision to award a $40 billion refueling tanker contract to a foreign company is a bitter blow to Boeing Co. — and to Wichita, which stood to gain hundreds of jobs here from the project.
If this decision is truly in the best interests of the country, Kansans can live with it. But the Air Force has some explaining to do.
The decision flies in the face of Boeing’s five decades of dominance and proven excellence in building military tankers.
The Boeing proposal would have sustained more than 44,000 stateside jobs, including more than 1,000 jobs at Boeing Wichita and its area subcontractors. The EADS/Northrop Grumman Corp. proposal would create only about half that many U.S. jobs.
One industry analyst said the Air Force judged the EADS/Northrop KC-30 proposal to be superior on four out of five criteria. One key factor: The KC-30 design was able to carry 23 percent more fuel or cargo, giving it a clear advantage in refueling missions.
It may not have been George W. Bush’s supermarket-scanner moment, but it was remarkable: Near the end of Thursday’s news conference, the president reacted to a question about soaring pump prices with apparent cluelessness:
“Wait, what did you just say?†Bush interrupted. “You’re predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?â€
“A number of analysts are predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline,†responded CBS New Radio’s Peter Maer.
“Oh, yeah?†Bush said. “That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that.†(Never mind that the forecast had been all over the media in recent days and his press secretary had been questioned about it a week earlier.)
He added: “You just said the price of gasoline may be up to $4 a gallon — or some expert told you that. That creates a lot of uncertainty.†At least Bush recovered quickly, seizing the opportunity to call for his tax cuts to be made permanent and for more oil drilling.
As a former Wichita school board member, House Assistant Minority Leader Jim Ward (in photo), D-Wichita, should have known his vote against a bill to provide Wichita schools with an extra $1.1 million would raise eyebrows and even ire — especially because the bill failed by one vote. But he was thinking about “big picture stuff,†he told The Eagle editorial board today. “The policy’s absolutely right†— to put more dollars into high-poverty urban districts, as a state audit urged. But the bill would have yanked hundreds of thousands of dollars from rural districts, rather than cushion the loss. That isn’t how school-finance formula changes usually are made, he said. “It just wasn’t fair. Plus, we need those folks that were getting hurt to help us on some other stuff†— Wichita funding needs of as much as $50 million in state money related to medical education, airfares, aviation training and research.
The divide on the debate about access to abortion records was on display on Thursday’s Opinion pages.
On one side, Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue, noting that all patient-identifying information is redacted from the records, argued: “The stall tactic of filing with the Supreme Court on privacy issues that is being employed by Tiller’s lawyers, and now by the attorney general, is only meant to manipulate and scare the public with falsehoods, while attempting to block important evidence from a legally convened grand jury that could prove Tiller has been doing illegal abortions for years.â€
On the other side, Vickie Sandell Stangl said that the court must decide whether patients “deserve to have their personal medical information rifled through by strangers, always with the threat that anti-abortion extremists could also get their hands on this information.†And as to whether these concerns are phony, she said: “Last time a grand jury investigated Tiller, details of the evidence were leaked to Operation Rescue, one of the groups behind this latest grand jury investigation. Furthermore, during former Attorney General Phill Kline’s investigation, details of women’s abortions ended up being discussed on the Fox News program ‘The O’Reilly Factor.’â€
Most lawmakers wouldn’t want to be caught appearing to vote against God, especially in an election year. That’s surely why a bill creating an “In God We Trust†specialty license plate attracted a whopping 117 votes in the House this week. But give state Rep. Nile Dillmore (in photo), D-Wichita, one of only two “no†votes, credit for having the courage to use the bill to make a point: Nearly halfway into the session, he said Monday, “we have not talked about health care, minimum wage, immigration or tax relief for fixed-income seniors. Instead, we spend our time naming highways and issuing commemorative license plates. Someone needs to say enough is enough and demand we get down to business.â€
Let it also be said that the “In God We Trust†plate does not seem to fit the specialty plate program, which is designed to raise money for colleges and causes, or to honor Kansans such as veterans or, as in the case of another bill that passed the House this week, “gold star†mothers.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Wednesday blasted a state lawmaker who has called for an investigation into a board game created by her college student son, John.
That’s right: Sen. Tim Huelskamp (in photo), R-Fowler, called on the Kansas attorney general to investigate the prison-themed game, called Don’t Drop the Soap, which Huelskamp called obscene. Oh, please.
At a news conference, Sebelius said the controversy was much ado about nothing. She added, “I find it extraordinary that this becomes a topic of a Legislature that can’t seem to move on any of the issues before them.â€
Maybe her son could come up with a Legislature-themed game, called Don’t Get Anything Done.
Remember when President Bush’s chief economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, said back in 2003 that the Iraq war would cost from $100 billion to $200 billion? For that frank appraisal, he was fired.
The Bush team now estimates the cost of the Iraq war at about $500 billion.
But Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said this week that the actual costs to date have been about $3 trillion, according to his study — and the costs are certain to soar in coming years, with the need to rebuild the military and provide lifetime health care to veterans. The final price tag could be between $5 trillion and $7 trillion.
It’s a sobering reminder of the unforeseen costs of war.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration tried to shoot the messenger: “People like Joe Stiglitz lack the courage to consider the cost of doing nothing and the cost of failure,†said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
It doesn’t look like courage — more like fiscal recklessness and managerial incompetence — to refuse to honestly face the soaring costs of this elective misadventure.
The rush to build a “virtual fence†along the U.S.-Mexico border has become a boondoggle. Big surprise. The Bush administration is having to scale back and scrap some its plans after its test phase of the project hasn’t worked as planned, the Washington Post reported. The Boeing Co. was paid $20.6 million for a 28-mile pilot project, but it has been beset with problems. Among them: Boeing used inappropriate software — which the government has paid Boeing an additional $65 million to replace — and rain and other environmental factors trigger the radar systems. As a result, we’re going to spend millions more on the project, and its first phase likely won’t be deployed until 2011 instead of 2008, as planned. But will it even work then?
Even the 27 percent of Americans who, according to a recent CBS News survey, approve of President Bush’s job performance should be concerned that millions of his administration’s e-mails are missing. The Presidential Records Act requires the White House to preserve its records, including e-mails. But testimony in a House hearing this week told of how, despite repeated warnings by technology experts and National Archives officials, the Bush administration installed a system for backing up e-mails that was “primitive†and had serious security flaws. Did it do so out of incompetence or to intentionally hide information? Unfortunately, that’s not an unreasonable question, given that former White House adviser Karl Rove and several other officials also used e-mail accounts at the Republican National Committee in an apparent attempt to circumvent record-keeping laws.
Kansans rather like seeing their governor in the national spotlight, judging from the first SurveyUSA poll since Gov. Kathleen Sebelius delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Union address, began campaigning for Barack Obama and was featured in Vogue. In the poll out Wednesday, co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12 in Wichita, 67 percent of those surveyed said they approved of the job Sebelius is doing, a rate 3 points higher than in mid-January. Interestingly, her approval ratings were the reverse in Wichita, dipping 3 points to 64 percent from mid-January to mid-February. But it’s been two years since Sebelius’ approval numbers statewide registered less than 60 percent in SurveyUSA polling. For purposes of comparison: New Mexico’s Bill Richardson, Iowa’s Chet Culver, California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger and Missouri’s Matt Blunt came in this month with 60, 48, 45 and 42 percent approval ratings, respectively.
It’s good that the FBI has launched an investigation into an altercation that left a Sedgwick County Jail inmate with a severely broken jaw and on life support. The incident occurred when Edgar Richard Jr., who reportedly is mentally ill, “started to get unruly and leave the cell†and a detention deputy attempted to stop him, according to a jail official. The severity of the injuries raises concerns about the amount of force used and whether the jail personnel are adequately prepared to handle inmates with mental health problems. The independent investigation should give the public confidence that the incident will be properly reviewed and any necessary action will be taken.
William F. Buckley Jr., in the words of the New York Times, “marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse.†Many people probably know Buckley, who died today at age 82, for being the longtime host of the “Firing Line†TV show — and because of the comedians who imitated his urbane speaking style and slouched posture. But he also wrote at least 55 books and founded the National Review magazine. Buckley’s biggest achievement was legitimizing modern conservatism and shaping its intellectual framework.
Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both went over mostly familiar policy terrain in Tuesday night’s debate. Clinton was good, as expected, on health care. But Obama was surprisingly strong on Iraq and foreign policy, an area that’s supposed to be Clinton’s strength.
Obama also laughed good-naturedly at a video clip of Clinton in a mocking harangue against his speeches. He didn’t take the bait. The effect was to elevate Obama and make Clinton look small and petty. She didn’t help matters by sounding peevish at times, at one point complaining that she was always asked the questions first.
Is this her newfound voice — whiner?
Both did fine overall. But Clinton won’t get the boost she needed from this debate.
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Whether you agree with his politics, give Mike Huckabee credit for having a good sense of humor. The GOP presidential candidate appeared in a newscast skit last weekend on “Saturday Night Live†(how many evangelical leaders would even agree to be on the show?) that poked fun at his seeming inability to know when to leave — either the skit or the presidential race, which is mathematically impossible for him to win.
Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign has been trying to use an “SNL†debate skit as evidence of how the media favor Barack Obama.
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On a 2006 visit to his father’s native Kenya, Barack Obama was photographed wearing the traditional white turban and robe of a Somali elder. Abetted by the Drudge Report, which points to Clinton staffers as its source, those now trying to use the photo to smear Obama as some kind of scary foreigner are missing the mark. The vulnerability for Obama is how goofy he looks. This could end up being Obama’s version of the photos of Michael Dukakis in the tank and John Kerry in the NASA “bunny suit.â€
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., threw his support behind Barack Obama Tuesday — the first of the Democratic also-rans to endorse — saying, “It’s now the hour to come together.â€
Dodd is an influential party elder with longtime ties to Hillary Clinton, so his call for unity will carry some weight, especially with superdelegates.
Bird lovers and disc golfers are squawking over recent tree and brush trims in Oak Park that they say went too far and damaged habitat. Given that Oak Park is a magnet for wild birds and those who watch them, it’s important for park department employees to exercise caution and preserve healthy habitat when doing upkeep and maintenance.
But park and recreation department director Doug Kupper rightly notes that brush clearing is needed to ensure access by parks trucks that maintain a water pump and other wildlife-friendly assets.
The tree and brush growth along the road will come back, sooner than people realize. And our guess is that the birds will keep coming back, too.
Maybe birders should just be glad that Westar Energy didn’t do the trimming.
Minnesota is among the states that included an exemption for theatrical smoking in their statewide smoking bans. Right on cue, bars are offering “theater nights,†when they dodge the law by deciding that their bar is the stage and all the men and women in it the players. The state may try to close the loophole, but until then, “We have our karaoke night and we have our rock night. Now we will have our theater night,†said one nightclub owner.
President Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress need to tap some of the cooperative spirit they used on the stimulus package to deal with terrorist surveillance. The administration may be using some “overheated rhetoric†to obscure the facts and “scare tactics†to try to get its way, as congressional Democratic intelligence committee chairmen said in a Washington Post commentary.
But the potential consequences of inaction are scary. And Bush makes a strong argument for the Senate version of the surveillance bill, which gives cooperating telecom companies retroactive legal immunity. “Our government told them that their participation was necessary – and it was, and it still is — and that what we had asked them to do was legal. And now they’re getting sued for billions of dollars. And it’s not fair.†Already, according to two Bush administration agencies, the delay has “impaired our ability to cover foreign intelligence targets, which resulted in missed intelligence information.†The priority here should not be how this fracas will play at the polls in November but how to safeguard the nation now.
The Iraq “surge†is working, according to Sen. John McCain and President Bush. It’s true that violence is down and troop and civilian deaths are down.
But the test of the surge, Slate’s Michael Kinsley argues, is simple: “Has it allowed us to reduce troop levels to below where they were when it started? The answer is no.†That was, after all, Bush’s goal in justifying the surge: “If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home.â€
Last year, the Bush administration said the goal was to reduce troop levels to 100,000 in the months after the surge. Now the administration says that troop levels will remain at pre-surge levels — about 130,000 — indefinitely.
The Wichita school board’s historic decision to stop forced busing for desegregation seems in step with the public’s mood. In a SurveyUSA poll this week for KWCH, Channel 12 in Wichita, 73 percent of those surveyed said the district should stop such busing, and 54 percent said they think that after forced busing ends, the schools will have the right amount of diversity. Such positive feedback affirms that the district is doing the right thing, 37 years after it began forced busing. Another wise move: Monday’s unanimous school board decision to hire a director of equity and accountability to watchdog the busing transition and other equity issues. The board also was smart to make that person report to the superintendent rather than to the board, as proposed.
Do we measure candidates’ patriotism now by whether they wear a flag lapel pin? Yes, if you follow the dumb rhetoric of Fox News talking heads and other right-wing bloviators who see something un-American in Barack Obama’s refusal to adopt the cliches of conventional political patriotism.
It’s the latest in a series of Internet-based, fact-challenged attacks on Obama’s character that make for good “controversy†and media ratings but insult the intelligence of Americans.
Instead of enabling the silliness, the media should pursue a simple question: Is there really a credible pattern of behavior suggesting that Obama and his wife don’t love their country? And if not, could we move on to something of substance?
The U.S. Air Force’s stunning decision to award a $40 billion refueling tanker contract to a foreign company is a bitter blow to Boeing Co. — and to Wichita, which stood to gain hundreds of jobs here from the project.
