Gov. Mark Parkinson made the right call today in restoring federal funding for Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri that the Legislature had cut. Anti-abortion lawmakers opposed the funding because Planned Parenthood performs abortions at its clinic in Overland Park. But the federal funds aren’t used for abortions; Planned Parenthood said the money only goes to clinics in Hays and Wichita, which provide health and family planning services to low-income Kansans. As Parkinson noted, “Eliminating funding for programs intended to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies does nothing to help reduce abortions in Kansas.” In fact, it could have the opposite result.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney dismissed many of the objections to his administration’s interrogation methods as “contrived indignation and phony moralizing.” His speech Thursday to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, was filled with false choices — such as how you either have to support the Bush administration “comprehensive strategy” in its entirety or you think that Sept. 11 was just a “one-off event.” And he claimed that to call some of the interrogation techniques “torture” is to “cast terrorists and murderers as innocent victims.” Does Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has condemned waterboarding as torture, think terrorists are innocent victims? Cheney needs to go back to an undisclosed location.
On “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart “debated” some members of Congress opposed to the prospect of Guantanamo Bay detainees being relocated to their states.
“Not in Kansas,” said a bearded Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., in a clip from a floor speech.
“OK, not Kansas,” Stewart responded. “All right. All right. That’s a ‘no’ from Kansas. That’s fine. That actually makes sense. They’re” — he did a puzzled pause — “tight on space.”
After a few more not-in-my-state clips, Stewart noted that “the United States is really good at imprisoning people. Why can’t we handle this?” and suggested Leavenworth.
To which Roberts was shown saying: “Leavenworth — where we educate, educate, all future Army officers. . . . You think Army officers want to study at Fort Leavenworth if terrorists are there? . . . I don’t think so. Not a chance.”
“But that’s what they’re studying,” Stewart said with exasperation. “They’re not going to be their lab partners.”
The resignation this week of Tracy Taylor (in photo) as president and CEO of the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp., effective June 30, provides a good opportunity to review and refocus KTEC’s mission and operations. A recent consultant’s report concluded that KTEC needed a clearer vision and focus and that it lacked transparency. Some lawmakers have also complained about the salaries of KTEC executives — Taylor was paid $280,000 a year. But rather than shut down KTEC and try to re-create some of its programs within the Kansas Department of Commerce, as former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius proposed, the state should find ways to make KTEC more effective.
