Daily Archives: June 21, 2009

Pro-life but pro-Roe

June 21, 20096:03 a.m.

abortionprotest9A Gallup poll released last month found that 51 percent of Americans called themselves pro-life rather than pro-choice — the first time the poll has had a pro-life majority. But that doesn’t mean that a majority want Roe v. Wade overturned. Of those surveyed in a new CBS News/New York Times poll, 62 percent thought that the Roe decision was a good thing and 64 percent didn’t want it overturned.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Abortion | Comments (58)

Open thread 6/21

June 21, 20096:02 a.m.

fathersday

By The Editors | Filed under Open thread | Comments (120)

Imagining Brownback as governor

June 21, 20096:01 a.m.

brownbackraisedhand6Kansans may not be thinking much about the increasingly likely governorship of Sen. Sam Brownback starting in 2011, but other media observers are on it. The blog Feministing fretted: “Brownback equates reproductive rights with slavery, says rape and incest survivors shouldn’t have access to abortion, has opposed contraception access for low-income women, supported the global gag rule, and has backed a whole host of abortion restrictions. So, yeah, he’d be bad news for the women of Kansas.” And a Brownback item on the liberal American Prospect’s Tapped blog was headlined: “New Front in Abortion Wars: the Kansas Governor’s Mansion.”

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Abortion, Kansas delegation, Kansas government | Comments (53)

Homeless facility could be great addition

June 21, 20096:00 a.m.

dolevahospitalA proposed housing facility in Wichita for homeless veterans could be a great addition to our community. The Department of Veterans Affairs is considering building the facility on the grounds of the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center. About 1 in 5 homeless people in Wichita are veterans, and our country needs to do more to help those who served it. The proposed facility could fit well with the city and county initiative to combat chronic homelessness by moving people into permanent housing with intensive support services.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Homeless | Comments (64)

So they said

June 21, 20095:59 a.m.

robertswiretap3“A no-comment day.” — Sen. Pat Roberts (in photo), R-Kan., as he and other Senate Republicans brushed off media requests Wednesday for reaction to news of Nevada Sen. John Ensign’s extramarital affair

“A wonderfully quiet town that is sometimes shocked into the limelight.” — KAKE News anchorman Larry Hatteberg, describing Wichita in Time magazine

“It’s like a guy coming up from the Triple-A trying to knock off a major leaguer.” — Kansas State University political science professor Joe Aistrup, on why Ron Thornburgh opted not to challenge Sam Brownback for the GOP gubernatorial primary

“Iraq and a lot of the skirmishes we are in are about energy. . . . We feel it makes more sense to put wind turbines on our prairie instead of our fine young men and women under the prairie.” — Kirk Lowell, executive director of CloudCorp, on the Meridian Way Wind Farm

“I really believe that, if the right decisions are made, Kansas can be the renewable energy capital of the world in the same way that we are the Air Capital of the World.” — Gov. Mark Parkinson

By The Editors | Filed under Kansas delegation, Kansas government | Comments (2)