News opinion 2008-04-25 Andanh.com

Plane crash training helps officials prepare Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:45:15 -0500
Over the years Bowling Green has witnessed emergency landings and plane crashes, one with fatalities, so it makes sense to be prepared for an accident if one were to occur. This is what the Bowling Green Fire Department and emergency medical services personnel were doing at the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport this week. They were training through a simulated night crash with two victims. It is something that the fire department does each year in order to prepare for a disaster. The Federal Aviation Administration requires firefighters to make it to the mid-point of the longest runway within three minutes of the fire department confirming a call for help. The firefighters made it within this time period during this exercise. The night simulation was something the airport wanted to do so the fire department could get used to the multiple colors of the runway lights. Monday was the first of three simulated crashes with others planned. One was Wednesday and another is planned for Monday. These simulations allow each of the Bowling Green Fire Departments shifts to have a chance to participate. It is appropriate that all shifts are receiving training at the airport because an accident could occur at anytime of the day, although a majority of crashes occur in the daytime. It also allows firefighters to know what is expected of them if an accident were to occur. It is a chance for them to prepare for different scenarios that may occur if a crash did in fact happen. It also allows fire officials to watch how EMS personnel handle different situations at the airport as well. We never know when these firefighters and EMS personnel might be needed at the airport, but if they are needed in the future they will certainly be prepared for the worst as a result of this training.

Unusual politics Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:45:27 -0500
Just when you thought there was no one left to pander to, the three candidates for Leader of the Free World found an untapped demographic: the professional-wrestling audience. Talkin’ tough never looked sillier - nor a presidential race more embarrassing. Give people enough time and exposure and they’ll eventually become caricatures of themselves. This week, Hillary “Annie Oakley” Clinton, Barack “Howard Dean” Obama and John “I Was A POW” McCain proved the rule, surpassingly, with ads prepared for a special episode of World Wrestling Entertainment’s “Raw” that aired on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary. For her performance, Clinton wore a colorful scarf and introduced herself: “Hi. I’m Hillary Clinton, but tonight, in honor of the WWE, you can call me Hill-Rod. This election is starting to feel a lot like ‘King of the Ring.’ The only difference? The last man standing may just be a woman.” Hill-Rod? Would that be Hill-Rod The Obliterator? Perhaps in keeping with her new smackdown persona, Clinton was also talking tough to Iran this week. On Tuesday’s “Good Morning America,” she was asked what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran,” Clinton said. “In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.” Steady. In an apparent attempt to obliterate Obama, Clinton hauled out her own nuke in another ad leading up to the Pennsylvania primary, featuring that consummate boogeyman, Osama bin Laden. As in, whom can Americans trust when things really get scary? The ad includes the famous Harry Truman quote, which seemed to foreshadow Obama’s wrestler message. Said Truman: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Said Obama: “To the special interests who’ve been setting the agenda in Washington for too long (blahblahblah). I’ve got one question: Do you smell what Barack is cookin’?” Just a guess: Iranians? McCain’s goose? Or would that be the banded duck Hillary claims to have shot as first lady of Arkansas? At least Obama conveyed with a self-aware smile that he was in on his own joke. It can’t have been easy for this serious man to play along with this absurd ruse. For the record, both Clinton and Obama were asked by WWE’s vice president of communications, Gary Davis, to tape the videos. Davis said he hoped they would have fun with their message, but “we also want our fans to learn about you and your direction for our country.” Fair enough. But could there possibly be one living soul left who doesn’t yet know what Obama and Clinton have in mind? And if so, should he be voting? Unclear - and unfathomable - is why McCain, the elder statesman, felt compelled to play along. It’s not as though his tough-guy bona fides needed burnishing. Looking more like Popeye freshly fortified with spinach than a commander in chief, McCain traded his true hero for a pretend wise guy, punching the air with a pit-bull snarl. “Looks like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to settle their differences in the ring. Well, that’s fine with me. But lemme tell ya: If you want to be the man, you have to beat the man. Come November, it’ll be game over.” Yeeeeeeeeehhhhhhh. You tell ‘em Mac. OK, it’s all for fun and nobody got hurt. But on the same day that these aspiring commanders in chief were smooching up wrestling fans, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was ripping the U.S. Air Force and America’s generals for not doing enough to support troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few days earlier, a former senior Pentagon official called the war in Iraq “a major debacle.” McCain - as the only war veteran of the three and the candidate most committed to staying in Iraq - should have opted out of the silliness instead of squandering his gravitas. He might not have known that Gates was going to part the curtains on America’s military dysfunction, but those who intend to lead a nation at war can’t hope for dependable timing. Clinton’s ad posed the correct question: Whom are voters going to trust to be commander in chief? In this too-long campaign, in which Hill-Rod, Cookie and Slugger seek to out-cute each other for the connoisseurs of human mauling machines, the answer is increasingly less clear.

Two opinions Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:56:00 EST
Tom Layzell is a gentleman. He's an experienced educator, and easy to like. However, a quiet and deferential tenure as head of the Council on Postsecondary Education gives him no standing to lecture Gov. Steve Beshear.

Building a new GI Bill Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:59:00 EST
To date, 56 senators and more than 200 representatives have signed on to legislation to revamp GI educational benefits. They recognize that the men and women fighting today's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not getting their due.

8664: bypass law? … Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:56:00 EST
During this state legislative session, the 8664 proponents testified before a House subcommittee that controls transportation spending. A member of the Bridgepointe Homeowners Association observed this hearing. During the presentation, 8664 made several statements that alarmed us:

More coverage for mini-marathon Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:57:00 EST
Local media shouldn't short-change shortMedia short-I was glad to see The CJ's article about the mini-marathon and hope that it's a precursor to more media coverage of this event.

Jimmy Carter doesn't get it Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:58:00 EST
Just what about total annihilation of the Jews by Palestinian, Arab and Muslim people does Jimmy Carter not understand? Carter's latest leap into the foreign policy breach resulted in his declaration that the terrorist organization Hamas had accepted Israel's "right to exist,"

Another comeback kid Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:58:00 EST
Hillary Clinton has been left for dead by most of the pundits, many of whom more or less openly yearn for consummation of their passionate love affair with Barack Obama. These pundits look to each other for constant reassurance. They didn't get it Tuesday night in Pennsylvania.

'I reported what I saw' Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:59:00 EST
Legendary CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow, born 100 years ago today, described the scene at Buchenwald when he entered the camp after liberation on April 16, 1945:

Lunch With...Patricia Barnstable Brown Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:42:00 EST
It was, from the start, to benefit diabetes research. Tickets were $175, and everybody said, "Well nobody's going to pay that much to go to a Louisville party."

I'm celebrating Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:45:00 EST

READERS' VIEWS Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
CREDIT MCCONNELL FOR HELPING RENEW DIABETES PROGRAM

My mom and I recently met with Sen. Mitch McConnell and talked about an issue that is very important to me: curing diabetes.

I am 11 and have Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. McConnell remembered me from a meeting during the Children's Congress 2007 last summer in Washington, D.C.

Now, as then, he listened as I told what I have to do every day to stay healthy and how hard my parents work to make sure I can do all the things my friends do. I have to stick my finger at least 10 times a day to check my blood sugar, and I take four insulin shots a day to stay alive.

He said he would continue to fight for me and the other kids with diabetes.

Increase aid to veterans Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:24 EDT
The last thing a soldier or Marine serving in combat should have to worry about is losing a home in the ongoing housing crisis. But members of the armed services are at least as vulnerable as other young homeowners to high mortgage interest rates and foreclosures.

An amendment by Sen. John Kerry to a broader housing bill includes special provisions to help active-duty troops, reservists and Guard members hold onto their homes.

The bill is one of several measures before Congress that attempt to redress the sacrifices that the country is demanding of service members who are facing, in many cases, more than two deployments to the wars, sometimes for as long as 15 months.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., like Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran, is chief sponsor of a long-overdue update of the GI Bill offering education benefits to veterans.

The measures are coming from Congress, not the Bush administration because it still refuses to acknowledge the full impact of the two wars on the services. Administration officials, Kerry said last week, "are quick to have their photos taken with the troops, but when it comes to actually doing something for them, they're AWOL."

Hiring scandal not over yet Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
For those who dismissed the Fletcher administration's hiring scandal as insignificant, let's review the case of Sarah Missy McCray.

A longtime state employee, she was a personnel officer in the Transportation Cabinet who worked hard to process the paperwork to help find state jobs for well-connected Republicans.

But that did not insulate her from being part of a "hit list" compiled by Fletcher "disciples" willing to ignore state laws protecting merit-system employees from political firings. She was, after all, a registered Democrat.

When the grand jury investigating the hiring scheme called McCray to testify, she appeared. She had not been awarded the pre-emptive, gubernatorial pardon given her boss, former Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert.

Her willingness to testify apparently irritated Nighbert so much that he denied her a bonus for good work, that had been approved by her supervisor.

WRFL here to stay Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
Even if you never venture "all the way to the left" on your FM radio dial (or arrive at 88.1 only by accident) one of the advantages of living in a college town is just knowing that something like WRFL is around.

The decidedly non-commercial sounds and commentary have been emanating from the University of Kentucky campus for 20 years. The student DJs sometimes sound as if they just rolled out of bed, but always as if they're having fun.

An accomplished group of WRFL alumni is gathering in Lexington to help celebrate the station's 20th anniversary this weekend with a series of music and arts events that are open to the public. (For details, go to the Web site www.wrfl.fm.)

One of the founders, Kakie Urch -- an editor, writer and multimedia producer in Palm Springs, Calif., and a former Herald-Leader intern -- recalls the birth of "Radio Free Lexington," a sobriquet she bestowed in a column in the Kentucky Kernel in 1987, in which she rallied the UK campus to support a student-run station.

"We sat in our leather jackets at the long board table in the Administration Building with the portraits of UK presidents from the 1800s forward looking down on us as Vice Chancellor for Administration Jack Blanton coached us patiently through the process of working with the administration," Urch remembered.

Economy Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:13 EDT

Spring is for God’s wonders
It was a beautiful morning yesterday.

Doctor prescribes ‘Molokai’
My doctor and I have an interesting relationship.

YOUR VIEW: Travel team selection process was not fair
It has recently come to my attention that a 10 and under girls travel soccer team has been established in Glasgow, but only a select few families were made aware of this.

Chinese Dir