E. Thomas McClanahan

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The whole phenomenon of Sarah Palin, I admit, is a mystery to me.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
This one bears watching. The Wall Street Journal reports that an important climate research center in Britain was hacked Thursday, and lots of embarrassing e-mails were dumped on line -- including one that talked about "hid[ing] the decline," an apparent reference to global climate data and different techniques for slicing and dicing the information.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The CBO says Harry Reid's 2,000-page monster bill will cut the deficit over a decade by nearly $130 billion. But the CBO had to swallow some Democratic fantasies to get that result.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Probably not, although today's Wall Street Journal led with grim news about housing: new starts tanked and mortgage delinquencies increased. And yet: Leading indicators rose for the seventh straight month and initial claims for jobless benefits dropped for the 11th straight week. The economy still seems to be moving in the right direction. These reports come from the Carpe Diem blog , where you can find lots of interesting stuff, including another look at the odds for health care reform by the end of the year, as judged by the Intrade prediction market.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

It's an interesting question, and Attorney General Eric Holder didn't have a clue during his Senate testimony. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tied the AG in knots with that query, and another Holder could not answer: Has there been any other instance in which an enemy combatant was picked up in a combat zone and then tried in a civilian court?

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Jeffrey S. Flier, dean of the Harvard Medical School, all but implores Congress: Don't do it. Don't pass the monstrous legislaton that masquerades as health care "reform." It won't lower costs. It won't improve care. It will retard innovation.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The bill looks to be all but dead in the Senate. Even many Dems have been backing away from it.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

A government report made public over the weekend says the proposed Medicare and Medicaid cuts in the health care bills would be a huge hit for doctors and hosptitals. As a result, many would stop taking patients under those programs. The headline on the story: "Report: Bill would reduce senior care."

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

This may sound surprising, but Republicans don’t have a monopoly on opposition to health care reform. Some Democrats also have doubts — if not on the merits of the plans before Congress, then on the decision to put health care ahead of reviving the economy. Here’s what three have to say.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

President Obama has said that he won't sign a health care plan that adds "one dime" to the deficit. So it's heartening to find an ObamaCare backer who admits that what the Dems have in mind is in fact "the scenario that many conservatives feared" -- namely the creation of a financially bottomless entitlement. Any concern for the deficit on the Democrats' part is entirely cosmetic.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The Obama administration, we were told, would practice diplomacy that's "tough but smart." If only: A better description, based on what's unfolded so far, would be inept and incompetent, especially in the Middle East.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Florida's move wasn't in the area of health insurance. It was property insurance. The state's property-insurance arm originally had above-market rates, but later it began competing directly with private insurers.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Red-light cameras were approved by the Kansas City Council, and 29 are now installed and working. But they remain controversial. Why not subject the issue to a public vote? That's what happened in College Station, Tex., and the issue lost. Now the cameras must come down.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The GOP's thumping sweep in Virginia and the surprising win in New Jersey sends a clear message to wavering Blue Dog Democrats in Washington. The looming House vote on health care now looks a lot more iffy, given that Blue Dogs in swing districts will be more inclined to defy Nancy Pelosi on health care.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

A must-read piece on the problems of the Massachusetts plan, which is a kind of pilot project for what Congress has in mind for national health care reform. Main points: Thanks to "reform," insurance premiums are rising faster than the national average and access to care is declining.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Well, I’m glad that’s settled. The agreed-upon media-pack narrative explaining last year’s market mayhem? Brace yourself:

The problem was lavish bonus plans at financial firms. Bank executives engaged in frenetic risk-taking in the hopes of a whopping short-term payoff.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

One of the most persistent myths regarding health care reform is that it will improve America's international competitiveness. After all, the argument runs, our companies are saddled with ever-rising insurance costs, which companies in many countries don't have to pay. Rep. Henry Waxman, for example, has said reform "is something to do right now to help fix our economy."
But what congressional Democrats have in mind won't "fix" our economy, it will weaken it.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The stimulus package, loaded with pork for Democratic constituencies, has failed to create as many jobs as the Obama administration claimed.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

And fading fast. At Intrade, where you can bet real money on such things, the likelihood of health reform with a public option by December has dropped from about 50 percent in August to around 10 percent today .

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Hardly. Support is sliding and time isn't on the side of reformers. If the Dems do poorly in next month's off-year elections, many Democrats will become even more cautious about radical changes in such a large sector of the economy.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
It may not feel like it, given the still-grim employment situation, but the economic climate is improving. A good sign: Capital spending is appears to be up. Over at the Carpe Diem blog, Mark Perry serves up lots of data showing solid improvement. Just keep scrolling.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page colmnist
Interesting letter to the president from an Afghan vet.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

No wonder the Obama administration wanted the House to finish work on its health care bill before the summer recess. The more people learn about the legislative blob slouching toward passage, the less they like it.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Many members of Congress hope to lay a lot of heavy taxes on the wealthy to help pay for a big chunk of health reform. But there was never any chance that a program so massive could be financed solely by soaking the rich.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
At least that's my prediction. He'll strain to find what looks at first like a middle way, something that avoids the choice of "all in" or wimp-out. Whatever, it will be his biggest foreign policy decision so far, and it will send a telling message to allies and adversaries alike.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s effort to encourage development in the inner city has taken form as the “New Tools” initiative.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

You’re going to see a lot more of this kind of speculation if GM and Chrysler keep reporting bad numbers. Last month, GM’s sales dropped 45 percent compared with September ’08, while Chrysler was down 42 percent. Ford? Not so much: down only 5 percent.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

It's drawn little comment in the blogosphere, but the story was significant nonetheless: The new catchphrase among Iraqi politicians is "national unity." Politicians preparing for parliamentary elections are reaching across religious and ethnic lines.

By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Two years ago, the U.S. intelligence community published -- with "high confidence" -- its dubious conclusion that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Then-candidate Barack Obama eagerly embraced the theory, arguing that it made a "compelling case for less saber-rattling and more direct diplomacy."

The Star's Tuesday editorial

From January through July, more than 770 U.S. commercial airline flights have been stuck on the ground waiting to take off, with passengers confined aboard for more than three hours.