The department and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales have served themselves and the public poorly with their ham-handed, hide-the-ball handling of the dismissals. "I would never, ever make a change in a U.S. attorney position for political reasons," Mr. Gonzales assured the Senate Judiciary Committee -- only to have Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty acknowledge that the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Bud Cummins, was ousted to make way for J. Timothy Griffin, a political ally of White House adviser Karl Rove. The revelation that all but one of the other U.S. attorneys had received positive to glowing performance reviews appeared to undercut the assertion that the prosecutors had been removed for "performance-related" reasons.
Anyone who knows Fred Ferrell personally, as I do, knows him to be a visionary individual who exemplifies competence, strength and integrity. Fred has dedicated his life and career to Missouri agriculture, and for that we all owe him and his family a great deal of gratitude.
On the surface, these seem like admirable enough goals. What measures, though, would actually be put into place should HB 154 pass – and would the passage of this legislation serve as an end in itself, or would it only encourage government to further legislate the thoughts and actions of those on this nation’s college campuses? For, regardless of whether or not this bill would actually provide a temporary respite for conservatives students and faculty who have long had to struggle to get by in an environment which is predisposed toward modern liberalism, there is the worrisome prospect that HB 154 is simply the first step in a process to legislate the actions and, more importantly, the thoughts of those who inhabit America’s "marketplaces of ideas."
State Treasurer Sarah Steelman's office said Tuesday that the check had been authorized Feb. 5 out of an Agriculture Department fund for "equipment and expenses" and processed by the treasurer's office two days later. State departments routinely certify that their own payments are proper.
"I have questions about the way this was done," said Montee, a Democrat. "One of the issues surrounds the approval of expenditures."
Ferrell was forced to resign Monday at Gov. Matt Blunt's request.
"I don't get into a car without putting on my seat belt, but the government doesn't have a right to force people to buckle up," said Rep. Ed Emery, R-Lamar. "It's an education issue, not an enforcement issue."
The cost of treating an unbuckled person injured in an accident, including $10 million a year in Medicaid statewide, make primary seat belt laws needed, said Dr. Douglas Schuerer, director of trauma at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. "Society, the hospital, the victim's family, they all pay when someone who isn't wearing their seat belt gets injured," Schuerer said.
Take "intellectual diversity." Under the Brooker Act, it's defined as "the foundation of a learning environment that exposes students to a variety of political, ideological, religious, and other perspectives."
C'mon. Do you really believe they mean it? A "variety" would include perspectives from across a broad spectrum. Brooker and her supporters in the Missouri General Assembly want to squelch perspectives that differ from their point of view. They're pushing for less diversity, not more. That's anything but intellectual.
Cunningham's bill is purely an attempt to brand universities as bastions of liberalism and force them into unnecessary state-controlled remediation that might make a few legislators feel good but will do nothing to further the goals of better educating our young people.
