E. Thomas McClanahan
Let’s cut the euphemisms and speak the truth
Attorney General Eric Holder was having a bad day. He was sitting at one of those tables before a congressional panel, looking up at his inquisitors. One of them tossed what should have been a softball.
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Big spenders in government, your time is up
May 15, 7:47 PMWhen the political climate changes, things that were once routinely acceptable suddenly seem intolerable. On the subject of government spending, the climate has shifted decisively.
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Carriers still crucial to projecting U.S. power
May 8, 8:51 PMDefense Secretary Robert Gates asked a simple question last week. Do we really need 11 aircraft carrier task groups patrolling the oceans for another 30 years? Boy, did that raise eyebrows in military circles.
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No shortage of government buck passing here
May 1, 10:21 PMIt’s hard to say which side looked worse in last week’s Goldman Sachs show trial. You had the suits from New York, squirming before the Senate inquisitors. And you had the politicians, preening themselves as guardians of financial rectitude — a display far from convincing.
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Obama’s approach sets back the Mideast peace process
Apr 24, 8:35 PMPresident Barack Obama laid down an important marker on the Middle East recently: He declared that settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a “vital national security interest of the United States.” His predecessors have said much the same thing. But then he upped the ante. He said the chronic failure to settle the conflict was “costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure.”
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System lacks incentives to curb big spending
Apr 17, 9:36 PMLast week, amid all the chatter about tax day, the AP moved a story pointing out that nearly half of U.S. households don’t pay any income tax at all. Glenn Reynolds, the blogger at Instapundit.com, fired off an item saying, “Everyone should pay at least some income tax. And everyone’s tax bill should go up or down whenever federal spending does.”
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Obama gives up chance to keep foes guessing
Apr 10, 6:36 PMIf President Obama ever got his wish of a world free of nuclear weapons, the United States would be the greatest beneficiary. Obama’s goal is solidly in the national interest. That’s also why it will never happen.
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Democrats now own health care’s headaches
Mar 27, 10:30 PMSupporters of the health care bill may have seen their legislative victory as a culmination, the end of a long campaign. But the events of last week have only inflamed the controversy. This is about much more than health care.
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U.S. needs to be careful with pace of withdrawal from Iraq
Mar 20, 9:35 PMThe recent Iraqi election triggered an amazing burst of optimism from the commentariat, which was remarkable after so many years of dismissive gloom. Newsweek took the prize with a cover story headlined, “Victory at Last.”
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D.C. calliope wheezes along — to no good end
Feb 27, 8:28 PMI read the other day that the Kansas City area won a big federal grant — $50 million dollars in transportation money for sidewalks, bus lines and a few other items. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood came to town to announce the deal.
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Land tax a worthy goal regardless of E-Tax fate
Feb 20, 9:55 PMA petition drive began last month that could wipe out Kansas City’s earnings tax, a prospect that sent a bolt of fear through City Hall.
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More people cooling to global warming fears
Feb 13, 10:31 PMA cheerful young man appears at the checkout counter. "Paper or plastic?' asks the clerk. "Plastic," he replies. Out of nowhere, a cop appears, grabs the young man and slams his head down onto the bar-code reader.
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It’s time to move beyond ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
Feb 6, 8:36 PMIn an appearance before Congress last week, the Pentagon’s top two officials called for an end to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gays and lesbians from serving openly. Some of the subsequent commentary had an impatient, what’s-the-big-deal, get-on-with-it tone, and some trotted out the familiar parallel with President Truman’s 1948 order to integrate the armed forces.
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President’s ineptness quite clear after a year
Jan 30, 8:08 PMWhat happened to the bright dreams, the hope and change? A year ago, fate handed President Obama one of the most tantalizing political opportunities in history. His party enjoyed a blowout election. The Republicans were leaderless and devoid of ideas. The Democrats had hefty majorities in both houses of Congress.
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Events confirm: Obama needs to move to the center
Jan 23, 8:38 PMThe key to Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 was his success in drawing independent voters. But as The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib noted, Obama and his crew failed to realize they didn’t own those voters. They were only “renting” them. Last Tuesday, the lease ran out.
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Fannie, Freddie lit match for our conflagration
Jan 16, 7:42 PMLast week, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission — formed to investigate the 2008 market panic — began its work. Naturally, the first thing it did was haul in four Wall Street grandees, who obligingly apologized for their sins. The episode neatly fit the now-embedded narrative that the crisis was all about Wall Street. But this is like going into a dark room after a fire and refusing to shine a light in more than one corner.
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Taxing land would benefit KC
Jan 10, 12:55 AMMayor Mark Funkhouser caused a bit of a flap with his statement that he would consider repealing Kansas City’s earnings tax.
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More steep challenges face the nation in 2010
Jan 2, 8:57 PMA new year stretches before us, a swath of time still innocent of human folly. Yet if 2010 is like 2009, it won’t be long before the calendar is splattered with more foul-ups and catastrophes, with the odd bit of good fortune occasionally tossed in. The coming year looks especially murky, and my record as a prognosticator is miserable. Yet, here I go again with the annual predictions.
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Financial system reform still seems far away
Dec 19, 7:41 PMYou hear it everywhere: Last year’s market crash was caused by Wall Street greed and too much deregulation. President Obama’s “60 Minutes” interview last week was a variation on the theme. He referred to Wall Street executives as “fat cat bankers” and said flatly that they “caused the problem.”
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Climategate: Who are the 'deniers' now?
Dec 12, 10:00 PMA few years ago, supporters of global warming theory began referring to skeptics as “deniers” — implying that anyone who doubted climate change should be lumped with Holocaust deniers. Now the shoe is on the other foot.
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Lack of subcontracting ties bus system’s hands
Nov 28, 10:08 PMThe Area Transportation Authority, which provides most of the region’s bus service, has been through a tough year. Sales tax revenue, which supports much of the annual budget, is falling — forcing layoffs, pay freezes and service cuts. Cities across the country are facing similarly stark choices. The ATA, however, is hobbled in its ability to respond.
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Inspiring ideas missing in Palin’s book
Nov 21, 7:42 PMThe whole phenomenon of Sarah Palin, I admit, is a mystery to me. She has built a large following. She has powerful supporters in talk radio. She is incontestably sincere. She is driven and gutsy. In Alaska, she took on the old bulls in her own party and won. For many, she embodies that strain of populism that believes an ordinary person, plucked from obscurity, can sometimes do extraordinary things.
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A health care plan so flawed even some Democrats have doubts
Nov 14, 7:14 PMThis 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. Start with Robert Reich, labor secretary during the Clinton administration. As Reich wrote recently on his blog, he supports “genuine health reform.” But he questions Obama’s priorities.
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Obama's overreaching haunts Afghanistan decision
Nov 7, 8:50 PMPresident Obama’s pending decision on Afghanistan highlights the risks for a president who tries to do too much too fast.
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Focus on execs’ pay won’t solve our problems
Nov 1, 12:21 AMWell, 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.
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More voters are souring on health ‘reform’
Oct 24, 9:33 PMNo 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. In a recent Rasmussen tracking poll, opposition to health care reform as proposed by President Obama and the congressional Democrats had risen to 54 percent. Support dropped to 42 percent.
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Inner city shouldn't be picky about investors
Oct 3, 9:39 PMKansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s effort to encourage development in the inner city has taken form as the “New Tools” initiative. Supporters say it will emphasize self-reliance and entrepreneurship in economically distressed neighborhoods.
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Dry land still sprouts plenty of history, memories
Sep 26, 11:01 PMThe trees became scarce as we headed west, until we saw them only around human settlements or along the course of streams. At some point, we left the East and entered the American West, a land marked mainly by lack of water. I had never been to Dodge City, but it was typical of so many Western towns — defined by the railroad, with a main drag that paralleled the tracks. From the east, it announced itself less by sight than by smell. Soon enough, we came upon the source — a sprawling network of feedlots on a low hill.
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Obama’s gift to the Russians and Iranians
Sep 19, 10:15 PMArizona Sen. Jon Kyl nailed it: President Obama’s decision to scrap missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe “turns back the clock to the days of the Cold War, when Eastern Europe was considered the domain of Russia.” You can be sure that Poland and the Czech Republic, where the missile facilities would have been based, have gotten the message, even as temporizers in Washington pretend Obama’s move was deft and clever.
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Obama still at odds with facts on health care
Sep 12, 8:25 PMThe first hints of real trouble can be found in President Obama’s initial address to a congressional joint session on Feb. 24. That’s when the jarring incoherence of his lavish plans came into full view. He said the “state of the economy is a concern that rises above all others.” He said it was imperative that the nation bring its budget under control so that we don’t bequeath to our children a debt “they cannot pay.”
