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Barbara Shelly

Too much debate controlled by Grover Norquist

Barbara Shelly McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - 1:32pm

For all the homage paid to Grover Norquist in Washington, you'd think we'd elected him to some high office.

Deficit hawk Alan Simpson says he's one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of reducing our massive debt.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says GOP lawmakers are "terrified" of the guy.

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To value life, skip death photos of bin Laden

Barbara Shelly Kansas City Star

Last updated Friday, May 6, 2011 - 10:33am

Americans, as Osama bin Laden once observed, are a people who value life. He saw that as a weakness but he was wrong, as he was about so much else.

Because we value life, we understand the power of death. Hence the debate that has erupted over the photographic evidence of bin Laden's bloodied corpse. Should the U.S. government make the photos public?

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Fudging military service an inexcusable offense

Barbara Shelly The Kansas City Star

Last updated Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - 8:21am

Lots of people embellish.

Benchwarmers promote themselves to the starting lineup. Childhood circumstances become more hardscrabble, youthful adventures more daring and glamorous.

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Prescription for health-care disaster: Sticking with status quo

Barbara Shelly The Kansas City Star

Last updated Monday, January 25, 2010 - 9:24am

I took a little stroll down memory lane last week. Back to the glorious days of June.

Polls then showed an American public that acknowledged its health-care system was broken and wanted Congress to do something about it.

"Americans generally see government involvement in health care in a positive light, and most support it," CBS News reported on the findings of its own poll.

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The GOP's strategy for defeating health care

Barbara Shelly The Kansas City Star

Last updated Monday, November 16, 2009 - 12:06pm

Something as sweeping as health care reform, we're being told, should have bipartisan support. The creation of the interstate highway system did. And the Civil Rights Act. Ditto the Social Security Act of 1935.

Well, no kidding. Of course health care reform should have bipartisan support -- just as so many of our Republican congressmen are insisting. As they work feverishly to keep any trace of bipartisanship from seeping into the vote counts.

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Rejecting reform again would be folly, Dole says

Barbara Shelly Kansas City Star

Last updated Monday, October 12, 2009 - 8:58am

Fifteen years ago, Bob Dole decided it was better to kill health care reform than to hand a Democratic president a historic victory. Since then, praise be, he's reformed his thinking.

In Kansas City last week, the former Republican Senate majority leader and presidential candidate added his voice -- still strong at age 86 -- to the push to help all Americans afford good health care.

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