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OK, for those wanting a break from politics. . . . I’m remiss in not mentioning earlier the “underdog†victory last week by the beagle Uno at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. It was the first best-in-show win by a beagle. What made Uno special — and had the audience standing and cheering at Madison Square Garden — was his personality. The “people’s dog†jumped and bayed and acted like, well, a real dog.
Fidel Castro’s resignation as Cuban leader ends 49 years of his ironfisted, charismatic rule — but not Cuban tyranny. Political power is now in the hands of his brother Raul (in photo with Castro), who is expected to continue his older brother’s socialist program.
But Raul is old, too — 76 — and the Castro era clearly is coming to an end, which might provide a diplomatic opening for the United States. President Bush and other U.S. leaders are calling for a transition to democracy and real elections.
In the meantime, it’s dictatorship as usual.
Perhaps that’s why Miami’s Little Cuba was largely quiet at news of Castro’s retirement.
Now that President Bush has all but endorsed GOP nominee-to-be John McCain, the question of how and how often the two might campaign together must be answered. The New York Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller noted the “difficult calculus the McCain campaign faces: Using Mr. Bush enough to try to make the tough sell of Mr. McCain to conservatives but not so much that he will drive away the independents and some moderate Democrats that Mr. McCain is counting on in November.†One possibility is that Bush will focus on helping GOP House and Senate candidates in states McCain can consider safely in his pocket. One such state is Kansas, where at least the 2nd Congressional District is sure to be competitive (though Bush’s campaign visit there two years ago didn’t seem to help).
Meanwhile, expect the Democrats to do a lot of mentioning of “Bush-McCain,†as if they are sharing a ticket. (Of course, if McCain does as some are suggesting and taps Jeb Bush to be his running mate. . . .)
Steve Kazmierczak, who killed five at Northern Illinois University last week before killing himself, reportedly spent more than a year in a mental health facility for psychological problems during and after high school. He might also have been discharged from the military for psychological reasons. But he was able to buy several guns in the months prior to the shootings.
Are gun laws still too lax in identifying people with a history of mental illness?
In the wake of the Virginia Tech killings, Congress passed a law tightening mental health screening for guns. But the law only targets people who have been legally committed to a mental institution or program.
A new Illinois gun law that takes effect this summer will require medical personnel to report patients who exhibit “suicidal, threatening or assaultive behavior.â€
Some kind of higher standard seems reasonable. Everyone has an interest in keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
Because it fell 11 short of the veto-proof 84 votes, the Kansas House’s first-round approval Monday of a bill to allow the coal-plant expansion near Holcomb fell short of ensuring the plants will be built. The process is far from over, but for the moment it looks like the Sebelius administration’s denial of the plants’ air-quality permit could stand. If so, that would be a political victory for the governor. More important, it would be a victory for the 2-1 majority of Kansans in a recent poll who approved of the plants’ rejection.
One disappointment out of Monday’s action on the issue: that 66 House members followed their Senate brethren and voted against setting even basic limits on the new plants’ carbon dioxide emissions. “I think people are beginning to discover that this is not settled science,†said state Rep. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona.
Anybody else think state lawmakers don’t know much about science?
State Sen. Peggy Palmer (in photo), R-Augusta, claims in a commentary on today’s Opinion pages that opponents of her illegal immigration bill — which include our state’s most prominent business and farming organizations — are employing scare tactics. But she’s the one who has been promoting fear. Palmer titled her bill the Kansas Illegal Immigration Relief Act, implying that our state is suffering a scourge. And she has talked about stopping an “invasion,†warned about terrorists and said that “I don’t think we want to become like California.†Yet she seems surprised that some people are offended by her comments and concerned about the cost and harm of her proposals.
After Travelgate, Filegate and Monicagate, why not “Trousergate� That’s what an incident is being called in which state Sen. Jim Barone, D-Frontenac, stuffed some polling documents in his pants at a recent state Democratic Party retreat and then headed for the door. Participants had been told that the data wasn’t supposed to leave the room, but Barone denies wrongdoing. “I did place the poll in the small of my back as I have done with bulky papers for 40 years, so that I could continue to review some areas that I did not clearly understand after returning from a bathroom break,†Barone said in an e-mail to a Democratic staffer. Not surprisingly, some of his party members aren’t buying that and are calling for his removal as Democratic caucus chairman.
