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State debate: Guantanamo errors coming home to roost, says the Kenosha News

A 10/10 roundup of editorials from state papers

Compiled by Lynn Danielson  —  10/10/2008 10:44 am

The Kenosha News says the Bush administration brought the problem on itself of what to do with 17 Chinese prisoners a judge has ordered released from Guantanamo Bay.

The 17 Uighurs, Chinese Muslims, have been held at Guantanamo Bay for the last seven years. The administration admits that the Uighurs, who seemed to be in Afghanistan as part of a separatist group agitating for independence from China, were rounded up by mistake.

The administration says it will release them if another country will take them. China is the only country that wants them, but Beijing considers them terrorists and there is a well-founded fear that the Uighurs would be imprisoned and tortured if they were returned.

The Washington, D.C., area's small Uighur community is prepared to help find the prisoners housing and jobs. This would seem to remedy an injustice and solve a problem, but the Bush administration doesn't see it that way and seems determined to keep them in custody.

The White House brought this on itself when it brought prisoners from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Guantanamo Bay on the legal fiction that the U.S. base was technically not on U.S. soil and not subject to U.S. law. Now we're stuck with those prisoners. Some may be convicted of actual crimes; some may be repatriated or released to third countries; and some, like these 17 Uighurs, may become our fellow citizens.

Another bar technically exempt from Oshkosh's smoking ban decided to ban smoking anyway, the Oshkosh Northwestern points out. CBC's owner Chad Ryfinski is attentive to trends. He knows some patrons won't like the decision. But any money out the door can be more than made up for by money in. He's aiming to capitalize on cleaner air.

There are more pioneers like Ryfinski all around Wisconsin ndsh business people not looking not to anger or debate customer bases but, rather, to get new ones in the door.

An April poll suggests 69 percent of Wisconsinites support a statewide smoking ban. But when you see business owners down the street making adjustments to make money, there's the tangible proof of an organic change.

Customers are looking for cocktails and clean air.

How many CBCs around Wisconsin could, right now, opt to go smoke-free and free up a little more time and energy in Madison or our local city halls to focus on schools, streets and security?

Sheboygan City Clerk Susan Richards has come up with a winning plan to make things go smoothly at the city's polling places on Election Day, says the Sheboygan Press.

She wants to get dozens of people to volunteer to serve as "greeters" at the city's 16 polling sites to help guide people through the voting process. Richards also wants to get dozens of teenagers to help out as poll workers for the day.

The greeters would make sure that people get into the proper line to get their ballot and make sure that people who need to register to vote get to the right place in the shortest amount of time.We urge people who have the time -- or can make the time -- to give a little something back to their community and help to make things go a little bit easier on Nov. 4.

Compiled by Lynn Danielson  —  10/10/2008 10:44 am