Wichita Eagle

Not long ago, the media made us listen to mind-numbing stories about the "balloon boy." This week they've given us hours of useless information about a five-chapter book written by another publicity hound named Sarah Palin. Where is Walter Cronkite when you need him?

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Why do people make a big deal out of Palin's so-called lack of experience when she has had 100 times more than President Obama? Oh, yeah — Obama is a great speaker.

How could terrorist remain in Army?

I am very saddened that our military, FBI and perhaps others dropped the ball on the terrorist stationed at Fort Hood.

How could the alleged shooter, who was being investigated as suspicious and sympathetic toward suicide bombers, be allowed to remain in the service?

Liberals are still attacking Sarah Palin a year after the election. They are afraid a good choice will be made next time.

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I hope Palin does run for president in 2012. Maybe after she loses, again, she will take the hint and go away and take her theocracy supporters with her.

Now we can say, with no real doubt, that the Obama administration has suffered its first major foreign policy failure, and it's hard to see a way to recover.

In fact, the administration's Middle East strategy has been nothing short of a debacle, born of inexplicable naivete. Couldn't they see that previous presidents, going back more than two decades, had asked Israeli and Arab leaders to make exactly the same "gestures" — and none of those presidents had succeeded?

Certainly it is laudable that a new president plunged into this, the oldest major festering sore of the modern world, weeks after taking office. Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter all paid lip service to the issue until late in their terms. Every one of them realized that the problem was so fraught, the chance of success so faint, that the most likely outcome of any major effort was embarrassment.

Terrorists by definition try to frighten you into changing the way you do things. In the run-up to his trial as an alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's success as a terrorist is showing in us. A lot of good, patriotic, law-and-order Americans suddenly sound frightened by our own civilian judicial system.

Almost two-thirds of Americans would rather see Mohammed tried in a military court instead of a civilian court, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Monday. Only 34 percent say that he should face trial in civilian court, as the Obama administration plans to do.

If Mohammed is tried in the United States, 64 percent of those polled think he will get a fair trial. Most of us believe our system is fair, yet that seems to be what troubles many of us. We'd rather have Mohammed tried by a system that was a little less fair. We'd like a deck stacked more against him.

Military people know how to fight wars, but diplomatic tactics may prevent wars. Perhaps President Obama can catch more flies with honey than the military can with bombs.

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Why do Republicans think that Americans cannot successfully house the Guantanamo detainees in the United States? Do Republicans think Americans are too stupid for the job?

Strident opposition was astonishing

As a former Wichitan, I read with astonishment the Wichita Ministerial League's strident opposition to the proposed Lord's Diner satellite location at 21st and Grove ("NE Lord's Diner site faces vocal opposition," Nov. 13 Local & State).

I sympathize with the area's residents who are concerned about the potential impact on their neighborhood. No one wants to see crime increase and property values drop. However, for a group of ministers to offer such a scathing rebuke is truly astounding. It seems that expressing their concerns and discussing possible preventive measures — such as coordination with the Wichita Police Department substation less than a mile away, or forming an advisory board of neighborhood residents — might have been a more reasonable response.

With the discussion on health care reform, emotional terms such as "death panels" and "health care rationing" are making the news. Though no one is advocating sending Grandma off on an ice floe, perhaps this discussion is forcing us to think seriously about such questions as: What is good medical care at the end of life? Is there a time when we do need to pull back on costly, high-tech, aggressive therapies? Do we sometimes make the treatment worse than the disease?

Studies repeatedly have shown that Americans consume staggering amounts of medical resources (as well as human resources) near the end of life, often on treatments that realistically do not extend quality of life very much.

November is National Hospice Month. Simply stated, the hospice philosophy is about "quality of life" rather than "quantity." Hospice is now involved with 40 percent of all deaths in this country and recognizes that all individuals have their own goals in life that give meaning and purpose.

The Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition commissioned a study five years ago that identified industries to target for growth and to help diversify the local economy. Given new economic and market conditions (including the emergence of the green-energy sector), GWEDC is wise to update that study and re-examine the region's competitiveness.

To that end, GWEDC hired Dallas-based Site Selection Group to assess the community's current work force, business and economic conditions; develop a strategy for leveraging and attracting resources; update the list of target industries; and report on how comparable communities have moved from being "good to great."

The consultant has completed its review of peer communities but won't release its full report until Jan. 18. But David Brandon, a senior vice president with Site Selection Group, told The Eagle editorial board this week that the top priority for economic development should be nurturing and supporting existing local businesses.

To those who proudly fly your American flags, place yellow ribbons on your cars and so abuse your freedom of speech: You have veterans to thank for many of the everyday liberties you take for granted. And they aren't just men; you have women to thank, too. Remember them next Nov. 11.

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I have very little faith that the people who were so incredibly reckless and irresponsible as to vote for President Obama in the first place can be counted on to actually understand what they have done.

Perhaps you've long believed that extremist Islamic terrorism poses the greatest danger to America. Well, the Republicans wish to disabuse you of that notion.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, declared the other day that health care reform is actually "the greatest threat to freedom that I've seen in the 19 years I've been in Washington" — an enlightening assertion, since I'd foolishly figured that the piloting of a plane full of innocents into the Pentagon wall had constituted the greatest assault on freedom in Washington.

Call me crazy, but I'd assumed that al-Qaida scored higher on the fright meter than the prospect of Americans getting the same health protections that are common everywhere else in the democratized world.

See Jerry Moran run. See Jerry Moran run fast. See Jerry Moran build a big lead in the polls and a big, big lead in fundraising.

Watch Todd Tiahrt sweat.

That's the state of Kansas' U.S. Senate race as 2009 winds down.

Other options for feeding hungry

The area neighborhood association and the Wichita Ministerial League were not wanting a Band-Aid solution to the complex problem of feeding the hungry ("Lord's Diner withdraws 21st St. plan," Nov. 15 Eagle). We tried to negotiate with the Lord's Diner in finding sites to feed the hungry while also dealing with finding jobs for the poor.

We believe the downtown model of feeding many homeless was not right for a residential area that needed economic development. We believed that mobile units could feed the 300 children and adults who were identified as hungry in the neighborhood.

If President Obama bowing to the Japanese emperor was wrong, then what was George W. Bush doing when he kissed the Saudi king?

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Since when does the personal representative of the American people bow to anyone, much less any so-called royalty? This is a very serious gaffe in protocol and needs to be corrected immediately.

The Sedgwick County Commission was right last summer to want to chart a productive future for the Kansas Coliseum complex. But especially with county staff warning that even the better of two proposals would put taxpayers at significant financial risk, the commission also was right Wednesday in declining to pick a developer and start contract negotiations.

The big decision merits more study and debate, which means more time. But doing nothing right now can't lead to doing nothing.

The commission recently had to pull $585,000 from the downtown arena sales-tax fund to subsidize the Coliseum pavilions, which posted a net cash loss of about $730,000 last year. That's not sustainable.

I get where President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are coming from. They think that if we change our way of life, the terrorists will have won.

In principle, I agree. If upholding our values makes fighting the war on terror harder, then it should be harder.

That's why I don't care much that it will cost more money to try suspected terrorists in the Big Apple than it would in the state-of-the-art facility at Guantanamo Bay. Similarly, while the security concerns stemming from a trial in New York are real, I think we can handle them. And, again, just because something is harder or more dangerous, that doesn't necessarily mean we shouldn't do it. That's the whole point behind "millions for defense but not one cent for tribute." Some things just aren't for sale.

Now the neocons on The Eagle's editorial board are whining about President Obama's courtesy to international leaders. It's OK for George Bush to kiss and hold hands with the Saudis? OK for Eisenhower and Nixon to bow, but not Obama?

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Obama's actions on the world stage are sickening. This ACORN lawyer is so clueless that if he had been president during World War II, we'd all be speaking Japanese now. Bowing to the Japanese, Germans, Russians, Muslims, British, Chinese or anyone else when you are the president of the United States of America? I don't think so.

The Obama administration has chosen the wrong New York venue to try five co-conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Instead of a Manhattan courtroom less than a mile from the site of where the World Trade Center stood, the government should have chosen the Bronx Zoo, because a zoo is what will be created when this terrorist trial is held.

In announcing the decision to use a civilian court to try these "enemy combatants," as the Bush administration correctly described them, Attorney General Eric Holder said, "For over 200 years, our nation has relied on a faithful adherence to the rule of law to bring criminals to justice and provide accountability to victims. Once again we will ask our legal system to rise to that challenge, and I am confident it will answer the call with fairness and justice."

I'm not.

Model reforms on what works best

Other advanced nations aren't stupid or ignorant. There must be some reason they have their type of health care systems, and are healthier overall than we are. They must have at least some good ideas, procedures and practices in areas of financing, administration and delivery of services.

It is my understanding that Taiwan looked at a number of countries to see what worked best, then picked strengths from different systems and established its own health care system. Why can't we do the same? If we are doing so, I have seen no evidence from the White House or Congress. All I see is an attempt at reinventing on one side, and keeping what we have on the other.

It's important for the United States to try the Sept. 11 mastermind in a New York court, because that is where the crime was committed. We need to show the world that we are a nation of laws.

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So the Obama administration wants to bring the "infamous five" to New York City to try them. If one or more of these terrorists gets off, Obama can write off the next election. The GOP could run the ghost of Richard Nixon and win.