WE Blog » Rhonda Holman

Open thread 11/22

Rhonda Holman — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:03:53 +0000

Minority status in Senate; majority approval at home

Rhonda Holman — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:02:49 +0000

Overall, Kansans seem to approve of how Republican Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts are doing in the Democratic-controlled Congress. In the latest SurveyUSA poll, co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, Brownback had a 52 percent approval rating, up 4 percentage points from September, and 54 percent approved of the job Roberts is doing (equal to his September rating). Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson’s approval dropped from 53 to 44 percent in the same poll — suggesting that even if he had decided to run against Brownback next year in an effort to stay at Cedar Crest, Parkinson could face an uphill fight.

Jail consultants straining patience

Rhonda Holman — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:01:36 +0000

Good for Sedgwick County Commissioner Dave Unruh for continuing to question the wisdom of giving an out-of-state consulting firm another 18 months and $228,000 to do the work it has yet to do under an earlier 10-month, $124,616 contract — reduce the Sedgwick County Jail’s population by 25 percent. Jail overcrowding is a hard problem to fix, especially when so many inmates are in the jail for reasons the county can’t control. But if commissioners decide next month to give Justice Concepts Inc. another chance, they need to better explain to the public why this isn’t throwing good taxpayer money after bad.

So they said

Rhonda Holman — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:00:52 +0000

“What we do as Kansans when we struggle is that we pull together and we work through our challenges. We don’t typically sue each other.” — Gov. Mark Parkinson, to KSN, Channel 3, calling a possible schools lawsuit unproductive

“When you’re half the budget and the budget goes to hell, you’ll get your share.” — Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, on the necessity of K-12 cuts

“What happened to the money and where did it go? We’ve given it away. That’s the short answer.” — Revenue Secretary Joan Wagnon, partly blaming tax breaks and incentives for the state’s fiscal problems

“Good luck to the Jayhawks. I say that having gone to the Duke Law School. Please don’t boo too loudly, because it will be misinterpreted.” — Former Clinton independent counsel Ken Starr, speaking at KU

ACORN stole election?

Rhonda Holman — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:02:59 +0000

In the wake of the disputed 2000 presidential election, many Republicans thought that election reform was a nonissue and that Congress shouldn’t be telling locals how to run their elections. Nine years later, with a Democrat in the White House, 52 percent of Republican voters surveyed by Public Polling Policy said they think ACORN stole the 2008 election for Barack Obama. The polling firm concluded: “The constant harping on ACORN by Republican politicians may sound nutso in some circles, but it certainly has hurt the organization’s image and it looks like the anti-ACORN message may resonate with a decent portion of the American electorate.”

Open thread 11/21

Rhonda Holman — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:01:48 +0000

Will GOP contenders be nice to Obama?

Rhonda Holman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:42:34 +0000

GOP governors ended their meeting in Texas on Thursday by cautioning the party’s 2010 candidates to go easy on President Obama. “We need to be careful. We need to treat the president respectfully,” said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who chairs the Republican Governors Association, noting that the nation’s first African-American president enjoys a “residuary of good will.” Somehow it’s hard to imagine that warning will be heeded by conservative media or by conservative candidates in red states such as Kansas, where Obama’s approval rating was just 41 percent late last month (in a SurveyUSA poll co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12).

Open thread 11/20

Rhonda Holman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:01:09 +0000

Questions linger about Coliseum

Rhonda Holman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:00:06 +0000

Some questions left over from Thursday’s editorial on the Kansas Coliseum’s uncertain future, in the wake of the Sedgwick County Commission’s vote against negotiating with any developer right now:
– How could the committee reviewing the proposals not take into consideration the fact that its preferred developer, North American Management-Kansas, also is involved in trying to get approval for a Native American casino nearby?
– The public outcry over the proposal last summer to close the Coliseum complex came from the groups that use its pavilions for dog, horse, gun shows and more. Where were the passionate defenders of the Britt Brown Arena? Do they have any ideas for how to keep it open and productive?

Open thread 11/19

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:02:46 +0000

GOP dark horses

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:01:41 +0000

RealClearPolitics’ Tom Bevan and Mike Memoli have cast their imaginations beyond Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, and drawn up a list of GOP dark horses for 2012: South Dakota Sen. John Thune (in photo), Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn and former Vice President Dick Cheney, and, calling them the “best of the rest,” Gen. David Petraeus and Reps. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, Mike Pence of Indiana and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Palin in 2012?

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:00:53 +0000

Two takes on the prospects of a Sarah Palin presidential nomination in 2012, offered Sunday by participants on ABC’s “This Week” roundtable:
– “She’s a joke. I just can’t take her seriously. We’ve got serious problems in the country. . . . The idea that this potential talk show host is considered seriously for the Republican nomination. Believe me — it’ll never happen,” said New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks.
– “You cannot underestimate the degree to which women will be drawn to her story, and that’s who she’s speaking to. These are people who are ignored, who nobody counts into their thinking,” said Gwen Ifill, moderator of PBS’ “Washington Week.”
Meanwhile, only 28 percent of Americans surveyed think that Palin is qualified to be president, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll. And Newsweek is taking heat over its cover photo of Palin posing in running gear.

Making Reagan look like a RINO

Rhonda Holman — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:02:57 +0000

Given the conservative challenges in several states against incumbents who are viewed as RINOs (Republicans in name only), would Ronald Reagan, if judged on his record, be pure enough for the GOP circa 2009? Newsweek’s Evan Thomas noted that “Reagan piously gave lip service to the right-wing social agenda while doing nothing to further it by legislation; he also chose George H.W. Bush to be his vice president and allowed the ultrapragmatic James A. Baker III to run the White House.” MSNBC’s First Read blog further observed that Reagan “raised taxes” and “increased the size of the deficit.”

Open thread 11/18

Rhonda Holman — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:01:48 +0000

Diner fight can seed success

Rhonda Holman — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:00:38 +0000

The strong emotions over the now-scrapped proposal for a central-northeast Lord’s Diner satellite extended to the Wichita City Council bench Tuesday, notably with the sharply worded expressions of regret by council members Sue Schlapp and Paul Gray. Now, those who opposed the idea of a soup kitchen at 21st and Grove need to deliver on council member Lavonta Williams’ assurances that the hungry will be fed and the city-owned building will not remain blighted. Calling it probably the “most complicated” issue of his time on the council bench, Mayor Carl Brewer challenged the neighborhood to be as passionate in solving the hunger problem as it was in fighting the proposal. “At the end of the day, we want every citizen that’s in need or that’s hungry to be taken care of,” Brewer said.

Obama should stop bowing

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:02:27 +0000

It’s not “treasonous,” as the blogosphere has suggested, but President Obama needs to stop bowing to foreign dignitaries. Not only does it look bad for the leader of the free world to bow to anyone, but his bow to Emperor Akihito of Japan over the weekend wasn’t even culturally correct, reported ABC News. One academic with knowledge of the Japanese Empire said the “handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate” that it recalled President Bush’s back rub of the German chancellor. Then again, said the unnamed scholarly critic, “if Obama can get the dollar to stop bowing to the yen, I take it all back.” Obama similarly dipped at the waist in April upon meeting King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Open thread 11/17

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:01:51 +0000

McCain mum on Palin

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:00:58 +0000

Some of the members of John McCain’s presidential campaign are working hard to refute tales that his running mate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, tells in her book, “Going Rogue.” Former Bush White House and McCain campaign aide Nicolle Wallace, for example, calls everything Palin says involving her “just fabricated.” Give McCain credit for trying hard to remain respectful of Palin and her family, in recent interviews and otherwise. According to NBC, the Arizona senator has specifically asked his former staffers not to do interviews to rebut Palin’s charges.

Kobach blasts terror trial plan

Rhonda Holman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:49:09 +0000

In a New York Post commentary, former Kansas GOP chairman Kris Kobach described Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try five Guantanamo Bay detainees in civilian court as “blatantly political,” arguing that it “jeopardizes the interests of the nation.” Kobach, a former Bush Justice Department official who is running for Kansas secretary of state next year, criticized Holder for “blurring the line between ordinary crimes and acts of war,” for making New York City “an enticing target for terrorists around the world” (wasn’t it already?) and for delaying justice. “Once these terrorists are placed into the civilian justice system, an avalanche of motions from their lawyers will ensue,” he wrote. “Military commissions can avoid these delays.”

All downhill since Election Night?

Rhonda Holman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:03:33 +0000

All 10 months of the Obama era have been a letdown in the view of Boston Phoenix columnist Steven Stark. He argues that the president has made rookie mistakes, shown a disinterest in governing and been surprisingly divisive. And “in his quest to surpass what he’s done before and reprise his role as the nation’s Moses,” Stark wrote, “Obama appears to be on the verge of an ‘historic’ remake of one-sixth of the American economy, namely health care — despite the fact that a solid majority of Americans oppose the change. Whatever the merits, pushing for major societal change without bringing society along is a guarantee of prolonged strife, and is as unprecedented in its own way as his election was. It is — dare we say it? — very George W. Bush-like in its disregard of the popular will; meaning that, in the ultimate irony, history may pair these two as mirror reflections of one another.”

Open thread 11/16

Rhonda Holman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:02:20 +0000

Can schools streamline their way through crisis?

Rhonda Holman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:01:15 +0000

School districts across the nation are caught between decreasing funding and rising expectations. Ron Steiger, assistant chief budget officer for the Miami-Dade County public schools in Florida, described in an Education Week commentary how his district dealt with a $50 million midyear state funding cut by shrinking the size of the central office staff by 25 percent, relocating employees to the classroom, and refocusing the budget on direct student support and smaller class sizes. “We benchmarked ourselves against other large districts, and made changes that saved millions on transportation, food service and school administration,” he wrote. “We drastically cut overtime and nonessential spending on supplies” — steps that help put the district “in its strongest financial position in a decade,” he said.
It isn’t easy to find ways to use dollars more flexibly, Steiger said: But “to create districts that can flexibly streamline during financial crises, we must start with open and honest conversations about where dollars are being spent, and why. That conversation is difficult and requires a great deal of political will, which, in our case, the superintendent and school board had.”

Dubious, bogus and utterly phony headlines

Rhonda Holman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:00:01 +0000

The following satirical headlines come from borowitzreport.com and theonion.com:

LOU DOBBS LEAVES CNN FOR CARTOON NETWORK

SENATE PASSES BLAME BY VOTE OF 91-8

OBAMA’S DECLARATION OF SWINE FLU EMERGENCY PROMPTS PRO-SWINE-FLU REPUBLICAN RESPONSE

STEVEN TYLER LAID OFF FROM AEROSMITH AS BAND’S JOBLESS RATE HITS 20 PERCENT

FOX NEWS REPORTS: MILLIONS OF GRANNIES FLEE U.S. AS DEATH PANELS LOOM; Glenn Beck: ‘Run for Your Lives’

NORTHWEST PILOTS NOT IN COCKPIT; Found at Home Hiding in Box; ‘Happy Ending,’ Airline Spokesman Says

Roberts: Obama’s indecision is risky

Rhonda Holman — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:05:22 +0000

Unlike the former vice president, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., wouldn’t describe President Obama’s decision-making on Afghanistan troop levels as “dithering,” but Roberts told Topeka TV station WIBW that Obama has “got to get off the dime. He’s got to make a decision.” While Obama goes through one comprehensive review after another, Roberts said, “you’re endangering the support of our allies, who wonder if we’re really going to be there. You’re certainly endangering our relationship with (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai, regardless of what you think of him, and I think you’re endangering a lot of young men and women who are under a great deal of pressure over there and their lives are at stake.”

Open thread 11/15

Rhonda Holman — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:04:23 +0000