Daily Archives: Oct. 12, 2009

More warnings to conservatives

Oct. 12, 20091:24 p.m.

noonanMore commentators are voicing concerns about the recklessness of conservative talk show hosts. Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan (in photo) said ranters aren’t responsible critics. “This isn’t debate, it’s more like incitement,” she warned. Columnist David Brooks said the undeserved influence of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hanity is “the story of media mavens who claim to represent a hidden majority but who in fact represent a mere niche — even in the Republican Party. It is a story as old as ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ of grand illusions and small men behind the curtain.” Steven F. Hayward of the conservative American Enterprise Institute worried that “the brain waves of the American right continue to be erratic, when they are not flat-lining.”

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under U.S. politics | Comments

Suddenly Moran cares about ‘czars’

Oct. 12, 20096:02 a.m.

czarsReps. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, and Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, have been trying to out-conservative each other in their GOP primary contest next year for the U.S. Senate. Nearly every week, one or the other issues a press release aimed at appealing to some right-wing concern, real or imagined. Last week Moran introduced a resolution calling on President Obama to stop appointing “czars.” But as experts told a Senate panel last week, “czar” is a made-up media term, and such advisers have been common among past presidents. FactCheck.org determined that President George W. Bush had more such advisers than President Obama does. That caused Kenny Johnston, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, to observe: “For eight years Jerry Moran said nothing as Bush made a record number of executive appointments. To speak up now is nothing more than an attempt to court far-right primary voters.”

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Kansas delegation, President Obama | Comments

Open thread 10/12

Oct. 12, 20096:01 a.m.

columbuschristopher

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Open thread | Comments

Vaccine safety fears unfounded

Oct. 12, 20096:00 a.m.

Mexico Swine FluAre the official pleas to get an H1N1 vaccine coming into conflict with a high distrust of government, at least in Kansas? In the latest SurveyUSA poll, sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, 60 percent of those surveyed said they would not be getting the vaccine, with 33 percent of those folks saying they don’t believe the vaccine is safe.
On the safety question: Andrew Pekosz, an associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, told the Washington Post that all the data indicates the H1N1 vaccine is “just as safe as the regular seasonal flu” vaccine, adding that “this was expected, since the 2009 H1N1 vaccine is made in exactly the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine.”

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Health and safety | Comments