Category Archives: Local Politics

The next battlefield—Kansas

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The Battle of Mississippi in the GOP civil war is drawing to a close. The result is still in doubt. For the establishment GOP its Pyrrhic victory may evolve to defeat in November.

Chris McDaniel is investigating what appears to be massive vote fraud—democrats crossing over to vote in the run-off. That’s illegal in Mississippi. More than 1,000 fraudulent votes have been found already. Haley Barbour is being investigated about robo-calls to black claiming a McDaniel win will mean an end to welfare and other false claims. Reports of vote buying by the GOP establishment are also under investigation, one that may cause Cochran being removed from the ballot in November. The Washington GOP, through the NRSC, had dumped a ton of money into Mississippi to support Thad Cochran.

Why would a Cochran victory be Pyrrhic? Because the GOP has tainted the well. If Cochran versus the democrat is the choice in November, why would the GOP expect all those alienated conservatives to vote for Cochran? If that is the choice, I would expect conservatives to just not vote for Cochran and the democrat may win. When people see no clear choice, they may choose to not choose at all.

The NRSC is doing the same in another state—Kansas. Pat Roberts, a 47-year Washington veteran who hasn’t lived in Kansas for decades, is being challenged by Dr. Milton Wolf. The NRSC is dumping more and more money into Kansas against Wolf—another Tea Partier challenging a GOP establishment stalwart and political rubber-stamp.

Remember Mississippi, and FIGHT. LIKE. HELL. in Kansas

This Independence Day, the American Revolution endures

By: Diary)  |  July 3rd, 2014 at 02:05 PM

Conservatives, this is your call to arms, and Kansas is the battlefield.

The truth of the Mississippi Betrayal hurts. GOP party bosses have declared an all-out war on conservatives and betrayed our Republican Party itself in the process. The GOP establishment in general and the National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) in particular have some serious explaining to do.

America is descending into a struggle, less about Republicans versus Democrats and more about the permanent ruling class versus the American citizens. The NRSC betrayed the wishes of its Republican donors by diverting their hard-earned money from their stated goal of defeating Democrats and instead used the funds in Mississippi where they defeated a conservative Republican. The betrayal included outrageous and false charges of racism against a fellow Republican where they actually joined league with liberal Democrats including explosive evidence that Sen. Thad Cochran’s campaign possibly funded an illegal vote-buying scheme.

The party boss behind the NRSC’s bone-headed betrayal is Kansas’ own Sen. Jerry Moran. The NRSC spent over $200 thousand and deployed an army of staffers and volunteers to knock tens of thousands of doors and ring tens of thousands of phones in Mississippi to join league with liberal Democrats and defeat Chris McDaniel for the sin of being a constitutional conservative.

This was never about defeating Democrats or winning a Republican majority in the Senate. RNC chairman Reince Priebus admitted that Mississippi was not in play for Democrats. Faced with the ugly truth on the KCMO Morning Show with Greg Knapp, NRSC Chairman Sen. Jerry Moran confessed, “First of all, the NRSC is not the Republican Party.” He excused the betrayal with an  unusually candid confession that the NRSC “supports Republican incumbent senators to help them get reelected. That’s an important aspect of its mission.”

Kansas is the new Ground Zero.

And now the NRSC is circling the wagons around another insider favorite, my GOP primary opponent, Sen. Pat Roberts who has been in Washington for 47 years. Like Thad Cochran, Roberts’ record is lackluster at best. Roberts is posing as a conservative during an election year. Before I challenged him, however, Pat Roberts’ 2012 scorecard at Club For Growth was 55 and at FreedomWorks was 54. He voted for Barack Obama’s $600 billion fiscal cliff tax hike and to raise the debt ceiling 11 different times. Pat Roberts even voted to put Kathleen Sebelius in charge of ObamaCare.

Perhaps most offensive, Pat Roberts doesn’t even have a home in Kansas. He first ran for Congress using a vacant lot in Dodge City (where he has never lived) as his official address. He scrambled to rent a bedroom from a donor where he brags that he has “full access to the recliner.” (I’m going to give him permanent access to that recliner.) The Kansas GOP circled the wagons around Pat Roberts by empaneling a board of his public endorsers to declare he can remain on the ballot despite having declared that his Virginia home is his primary residence.

Playing the insider game, Sen. Pat Roberts contributed $5,000 from his PAC to Thad Cochran’s campaign which is now accused of the illegal Democrat vote-buying scandal.

…

We must start acting like the Americans we were meant to be: sovereign citizens of the republic, not subjects of a permanent ruling class. Our Founders conquered a continent and fought a revolution to escape a permanent ruling class. We must not be the generation that surrenders it. We must not squander the blessings of liberty they provided.

This Independence Day the American Revolution endures and the battlefield is Kansas. Step up. Join the revolution. Contribute. Volunteer. Say a prayer for our nation. Get involved.

Remember Mississippi, and FIGHT. LIKE. HELL. in Kansas.

Kansas Senator and NRSC Chairman Jerry Moran was on Greg Knapp’s local radio talk show. Knapp asked Moran directly about the NRSC’s role in the Mississippi primary and about the robo-calls and other reports of political abuse and illegalities. Moran, at first, didn’t answer the question, skirting the issue. Under pressure, he distanced himself claiming the NRSC had no control over expenditures after donating the money. Moran didn’t answer the followup question, “Who received the NRSC’s money?”

That same station is running back-to-back ads by the Robert’s campaign claiming Wolf ridiculed patient x-rays on Facebook. When pressed for proof, Robert’s people never responded but they continue to make the same unsupported claims. The say Wolf violated ethics conventions. They ignore Robert’s own ethics issues. A typical tactic of the GOP establishment.

The Missouri primary is less than a month away, August 5th. Missourians, like Kansans must make choices. Fortunately, the MO GOP is responding better than the leadership in Kansas and Mississippi. If they want to gain control of the Governor’s mansion and retain control of the statehouse, they had better support the grassroots conservatives across the state…or, else! Remember what happened to the Whigs.

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Legislative Session Roundup

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Democrat Governor Jay Nixon has been using his pen to veto some bills. His biggest veto, the HB 509, the Tax Cut bill, was overridden before the 2014 session ended. He waited until the session was over to veto these bills.

A number of these bills contain tax cuts or reforms in one fashion or another. Nixon’s constant screed was that the bills would cut revenues and unbalance the budget. Nixon did not acknowledge that it is the Legislature that creates the budget, not the governor. These vetoes prove, once again, that Nixon has never met a tax he didn’t like.

• HB1296 – Allows a seller to advertise that the required sales tax will be assumed or absorbed into the price of the property sold or the services rendered if the amount of the tax is separately stated

06/11/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

• HB 1455 – Changes the laws regarding burdens of proof for the director of revenue in ascertaining tax liability of a taxpayer

06/11/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

• HB 1865 – Modifies provisions of law relating to sales and use tax exemptions for utilities used or consumed in the preparation of food

06/11/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

• SB 584 – Modifies provisions relating to taxation

06/11/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

• SB 612 – Modifies provisions relating to taxation

06/11/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

• SB 662 – Requires the Department of Revenue to notify affected sellers of certain decisions modifying sales tax law

06/11/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

• SB 673 – Modifies the duration of unemployment compensation the method to pay federal advances, and raises the fund trigger causing contribution rate reductions

06/17/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

• SB 693 – Modifies provisions relating to taxation, fire sprinklers and merchandising practices

06/11/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

• SB 727 – Modifies provisions relating to farmers’ market and SNAP (Food Stamps) benefits

06/11/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

• SB 829 – Modifies provisions relating to burden of proof in tax liability cases

06/11/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

• SB 860 – Modifies provisions relating to taxation

06/11/2014: Vetoed by Governor Nixon

If you read any of the veto letters, you will find a common theme.

“…the General Assembly disregarded the normal legislative process, slipping in costly provisions without public hearings and without fiscal notes reflecting the impact on the state budget. And, as legislators ignored the legislative process, so too did they ignore the budget process…”

The budget process is owned by the Legislature. They are constitutionally required to submit a balanced budget. Nixon, however, by withholding funding to a number of areas, such as Education, has artificially created short falls in areas of state responsibility. The money was available. Nixon just chose not to spend it according to the budget. His hypocrisy is not surprising; he’s a democrat.

 

 

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Happenings

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The lead-off story today is one of valor. Sgt. Kyle J. White, 27, a Seattle native who now lives in Charlotte, will receive the Medal of Honor today for saving his fellow soldiers after a 2007 ambush in Afghanistan.

Former Army Sgt. Kyle J. White to receive Medal of Honor

By Jon Harper, Stars and Stripes, Published: April 15, 2014

Staff Sgt. Conrad Begaye awards Spc. Kyle White the Combat Infantryman Badge during a ceremony in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, Nov. 6, 2007.
  
Photo courtesy of Kyle White

WASHINGTON — Former Army Sgt. Kyle J. White will be awarded the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony on May 13, 2014, the White House announced late Tuesday afternoon.

White, 27, will receive the nation’s highest military award for his actions during a dismounted movement in mountainous terrain in Aranas, Afghanistan, on Nov. 9, 2007.

White was serving as a Platoon Radio Telephone Operator assigned to C Company, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, when his team of U.S. and Afghan National Army soldiers were set up and ambushed by a much larger and more heavily armed Taliban force after a meeting with Afghan villagers.

“There was one shot, you know, down into the valley, and then it was two shots, and then it was full-automatic fire and RPGs … it was coming from multiple directions,” White later recalled, according to an Army news release.

White was knocked unconscious by a rocket-propelled grenade that landed near him. When he woke up, 10 of the 14-man American element and the ANA soldiers were gone. To avoid the enemy fire, they had been forced to slide 150 feet down the side of a rocky cliff.

White noticed that his teammate, Spc. Kain Schilling, had been shot in the arm. After White and Schilling found cover under a tree, White put a tourniquet on Schilling and stopped the bleeding. Then White saw Marine Sgt. Phillip Bocks lying out in the open, badly wounded.

White sprinted 30 feet across open ground under a hail of bullets to reach Bocks. White made four runs out in to the open to drag Bocks out of the line of fire. He succeeded, but Bocks eventually succumbed to his wounds. Soon afterward, Schilling got hit in the leg by small-arms fire. White again saved his life, using his belt as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

Then White noticed his platoon leader, 1st Lt. Matthew C. Ferrara, lying face-down on the trail, motionless. White again exposed himself to fire and crawled to Ferrara’s position. After he realized Ferrara was already dead, White returned to Schilling’s side and began using his radio, until an enemy round blew the hand-mic out of his hand and disabled the radio. White grabbed Bocks’ radio and used it to bring in mortars, artillery, air strikes and helicopter gun runs to keep the enemy at bay. Friendly fire gave him his second concussion of the day when a mortar round landed too close and knocked him off his feet.

After nightfall, White marked the landing zone and assisted the flight medic in hoisting the wounded Americans and Afghans into the helicopter. White would not allow himself to be evacuated until everyone else was in a position to leave.

Six American servicemembers died in the battle.

Well done, Sgt Kyle.

***

Today is Primary Day in at least two states, Nebraska and West Virginia. Both elections may foretell the path of the GOP come November.

The GOP establishment touted the election of North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis, who won the U.S. Senate primary against his Tea Party opponent, as a major achievement. I’m not so sure. Tillis’ voting record is as conservative as that of his Tea Party opponent. Yes, he had the endorsement of the establishment but that doesn’t guarantee allegiance to Mitch McConnell.

The Nebraska GOP Primary is between Ben Sasse, a former Bush administration health policy wonk who helped turn around a struggling Nebraska college, and former state Treasurer Shane Osborn, who has been supported by Karl Rove and McConnell’s Republican National Senate committee (RNSC). Sasse has received the endorsement of Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee plus support from The Heritage Foundation and Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservative Fund (SCF).

According to that latest polling, Sasse is favored to win. That trend apparently has motivated Osborn to use Karl Rove’s favorite tactic—mud-slinging and negative ads.

The other potentially significant primary today is in West Virginia where seven-term Rep. Shelley Moore Capito is expected to easily win the Republican primary for the US Senate. Capito is widely favored to win the seat currently held by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV. Current democrat Senator Joe Manchin has praised Capito in the race. Manchin is one of several democrats being courted by ‘Pubs to switch parties.

***

On the Missouri side, state ‘Pub Senate leaders have reached a deal with democrats to end their filibuster on the 72-hour wait for an abortion. The deal? It was for the dems to end their filibuster and allow the Early Voting bill to pass. In return Ron Richard, RINO-Joplin, would not bring the Paycheck Protection bill and the Voter Photo-ID to the floor.

“What was the grand bargain between Republican Senate Majority Floor Leader Ron Richard and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jolie Justus? … Democrats agreed to end their filibuster of the 72-hour waiting period for abortion and to not block the Republicans’ early voting proposal, while Republicans agreed to not bring up ‘Paycheck Protection’ and a ballot question that would allow the legislature to require voters to present photo identification at the polls. The abortion legislation was sent back to the House by a 22-9 vote, where it was originally supported with support from 113 lawmakers. … The Republican early voting plan, which also passed, would ask the voters to allow six early days for voting. All of the early voting days would be on weekdays during business hours, which Democrats have broadly opposed.” — PoliticMO Newsletter, May 13, 2014.

Yes, folks, Ron Richard has betrayed us again, the second time within a year. I can’t understand why our Jeff City republican leadership allows this traitor to the Republican party to continue to hold his post in the Senate. 

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Followup

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It didn’t take long for Missouri Democrats to take retribution against Representative Keith English (D-Florissant.) English was the sole democrat vote needed to override Democrat Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of the Tax Cut Bill (SB509.)

Yesterday, the day following English’s veto-busting vote, he received a letter from House Democratic Leader Jake Hummel removing him from his committee assignments. Some insiders claim it was a symbolic gesture because none of English’s committees will be meeting for the remainder of this legislative term.

It is remarkable to observe the differences between democrats and the ‘pubs. English was disciplined by being removed from his committee assignments for a critical vote against the demands of his party. Last September, Senators Dempsey and Richard, reversed their votes on similar bills during the veto session, voting to uphold Nixon’s vetos. Their change of votes, from for-the-bill to against-the-bill, occurred after they accompanied Nixon on a taxpayer-paid junket to Europe. Nothing happened to those two. English, however, lost his committee assignment.

English’s decision to vote for the tax cuts, some $620 million when the cuts are activated, was not a recent occurrence.

“English was a special guest at a private reception for Republican lawmakers on Tuesday night. He told members that he wanted to vote in favor of the bill when it was first brought up in the House, but that he was urged by Republican leadership to hold off until the override vote in an attempt to avoid pressure from Democrats, including the governor.” — PoliticMO Newsletter, May 8, 2014

I haven’t examined English’s voting record. I would not be surprised that he has sided with the ‘Pubs in the past.

***

HB 1439, the Second Amendment Preservation Act, is hung up in committee in the House. It had passed in the House on April 12th on a vote of 114 to 41. It went to the Senate and passed there on a vote of 23 to 8. However, (isn’t there always a ‘however?) the Senate made some changes to the bill. Those changes required a confirming vote in the House. That vote has not yet happened.

Why?

There was a provision in the House version that was changed in the Senate; a change some House members demand be reinstated. If the House changes the Senate version, we are in another series of ping-pong from House to Senate and time is running out.

I’m coming to believe we will not pass HB1439. Some insiders who have watched this bill closely from the beginning believe it was designed to fail, that it contained a poison-pill or two.

It is not a good bill. It is a hodge-podge of components that should rightly have been proposed and voted upon individually instead of being collected into a monstrous Congress-style conglomeration of components. One reason why this bill is bad is that if it is passed and is enacted, we, the CCW holders in the state, would lose reciprocity with a number of states…maybe half of those states who currently recognize our permits.

HB1439 lowers the age for a CCW permit from 21 to 19. That would make our CCW permits incompatible with those states whose lowest age is 21 for a CCW holder.

Our neighbor, Kansas, is one whose minimum age for a CCW permit is 21. Think for a moment of the consequences if we lost reciprocity with Kansas! I live within ten miles of the Kansas/Missouri border. I travel to Kansas several times a week. I used to work in Kansas. Imagine not being able to legally carry in Kansas and all the burdens that would ensue!

There are other issues in HB1439 that can cause issues, too. For me, I won’t cry if it fails to pass. Yes, there are provisions in it I would dearly love to see enacted—open carry for one (although I would probably not carry openly myself. I do believe, however, that we should have the option. Kansas will have Open Carry in a few months.)

If HB1439 fails this year, we must learn from our mistakes. I believe it is a strategic mistake to roll all the firearm/CCW/2nd Amendment items into one bill. Yes, it may be a convenience for those sitting in Jeff City, but it has great dangers as we are seeing now with HB1439.

Personally, I’m going to meet with my Senator and Representative and urge them to fight to change how we organize any future bills for firearm and 2nd Amendment rights. One bill for each item. If an issue cannot stand alone on its own virtue, perhaps it shouldn’t be passed? When we have an omnibus-style bill, like we’ve attempted to pass in the last two years and have failed, there will always be one issue or another that will/could stop its passage. Let’s chalk this idea of attempting to pass a large complex bill under the “Lessons Learned” column and vow not to repeat it.

 

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Passed…

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As you can see, I have a blog today. That means I was not picked for the jury yesterday. Jury selection took ALL day. We didn’t get finished until nearly 5PM.

The trial promises to be a particularly nasty one. I’m glad, in a way, I wasn’t picked. I think I was excluded due to my answer to the first question yesterday morning.

The court officials were introduced, the Judge, the prosecuting and defending attorneys, and the court recorder. The first question was, “Do any of you [the potential jurors] know any of these officials?” I raised my hand. “Who do you know?” I was asked. “Judge Collins. We are acquaintances.”  I noticed later that everyone who knew Judge Collins was not picked for the Jury. Oh, well.

***

It appears the Nixon impeachment is stalled in committee.

IMPEACHMENT EFFORT NIXED — ‘Missouri House committee will not vote on attempt to impeach Governor Nixon,’ MissouriNet: “Efforts to impeach Governor Jay Nixon (D) will not be brought up for a vote in the House Judiciary Committee, its chairman told Missourinet Monday afternoon. Representative Stanley Cox’s (R-Sedalia) committee held two hearings in the last two weeks on three resolutions seeking to impeach Nixon on three different lines of reasoning. After a hearing last week he went to the members of that committee and asked them whether they wanted to vote on the resolutions. … Cox says he agrees with the decision of the committee members. … Cox says he believes there is strong circumstantial evidence that Nixon violated the laws of the state, but says he and the other Judiciary Committee members did not think the evidence and arguments met the standard for impeachment. … The articles of impeachment filed against Nixon accused him of violating the state’s Constitution in three areas.” — PolitcMO Newsletter, May 6, 2014.

Other bills, such as the Paper ballot initiative, are also hung in committee. On the other hand, Nixon’s veto of the Tax Cut bill could be overridden before this legislative term is over.

TAX CUT OVERRIDE IN SIGHT — Republicans believe they have the votes to override Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of Senate Bill 509: ‘Mo. House plans Tuesday vote to override Nixon’s veto of tax cut,’ PoliticMo: “The Missouri House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday to override Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a $620 million tax cut. By a party line vote on Monday, the Missouri Senate sent the tax cut bill back to the House on Monday afternoon, but Republicans opted to wait until Tuesday when all their members would be present to take a vote, House Majority Floor Leader John Diehl said after the House adjourned. Republicans need the support of all 108 House Republicans and at least one Democrat to override Nixon’s veto. The bill would reduce the maximum tax rate on personal income from 6 to 5.5 percent beginning in 2017 and allow a 25 percent deduction of business income on personal tax returns. Both provisions would be contingent on state revenues being $150 million higher than the highest of the three previous years.

“Democratic Reps. Keith English, D-Florissant, and Jeff Roorda, D-Barnhart, (the lone Democrat to support the bill initially) are considering siding with the Republican majority to override Nixon’s veto. “Do you believe you have the votes,” a reporter asked Diehl. “I believe I do.” Nixon has opposed the bill citing the potential negative impact of reduced revenue on education funding, as well as a potential “fatal flaw” that he had said could eliminate the entire income tax code above $9,000.”

— The bill has been the subject of a compressed campaign-like effort from both sides of the issue. Nixon has made more than a dozens of trips to cities and towns across Missouri urging residents to call their lawmakers and tell them to oppose the bill. Nixon, speaking in Springfield on Monday, pointed to the recent downgrade of the credit rating for the state of Kansas, which recently cut taxes on a similar scale. Nixon’s tour schedule since April 16: Jefferson City, Mo., Ozark, Mo., St. Louis County, Mo., Kansas City, Mo., Springfield, Mo., Jefferson City, Mo., Columbia, Mo., Cape Girardeau, Mo., Savannah, Mo., Springfield, Mo., De Soto, Mo., St. Louis, Mo., Jefferson City, Mo., Kansas City, Mo., and Springfield, Mo.

— Agriculture and business groups have lined up in favor of SB 509 in a way many tried to avoid during the HB 253 fight last year. The groups include the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Associated Industries of Missouri, Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Missouri Association of CPAs, Missouri Retailers Association, Missouri Realtors Association, Missouri Poultry Association, Missouri Pork Association, Missouri Grocers Association, Missouri Dairy Association, and the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association.

HOW THEY SEE US — A12 of the New York edition of the New York Times today, Julie Bosman from Jefferson City, ‘In Missouri, Republicans Prevail on Tax Bill’:  “In a showdown over tax policy, the Republican-controlled State Senate on Monday overrode Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a major tax-cut bill, setting the stage for sharp reductions in state personal income taxes. The Senate debated the bill for less than 30 minutes before overriding the veto on a 23-to-8 vote. The Republican-controlled House is expected to vote on the override on Tuesday. Myron Neth, a Republican member of the House, delivered an impassioned speech on the floor in favor of the bill Monday night, arguing that the state needed to give businesses tax breaks in order to stay competitive.  …

“The vote was a rebuke of Mr. Nixon, who last September lobbied so vigorously against a different tax-cut bill championed by Republican legislators that the lawmakers failed to override his veto of that measure. The governor, who had described the new tax-cut bill as ‘ill-conceived,’ said in an interview Monday night that he was prepared for it to now become law. … Democratic senators who spoke against the bill said they worried it would threaten Missouri’s excellent credit rating and reduce state funds for education. … After the legislature failed to override the governor’s veto last year, the Republicans came back this spring with a shorter bill, only five pages long. They rallied more support in the business community and argued that the tax cut would boost small businesses. In the halls of the Capitol, they posted black-and-white placards outside their offices, displaying the number of businesses in their districts that they said would benefit. And perhaps most crucially, after the governor vetoed the most recent bill last Thursday, they moved quickly to schedule an override session, hastily gathering members on Monday.” — PoliticMO Newsletter, May 6, 2014.

***

And for a parting shot, here’s an editorial how Tea Partiers are terrorizing the GOP Establishment.

PRUDEN: Tea Party challengers terrorizing the Republican establishment again

By Wesley Pruden, The Washington Times, Monday, May 5, 2014

This might be the year of the state senator. That’s not necessarily a good thing. It’s how Barack Obama got his start. Several ambitious state senators are challenging incumbent Republican senators, and the prospect of surprises from the heartland terrifies the Republican establishment.

Some incumbents apparently no longer actually live in the states they represent, having outgrown their bucolic origins and aspire to the undisturbed life in Hollywood on the Potomac, bathed in the twinkle and tinsel of an ersatz Hollywood.

The patricians of the Republican establishment — party moguls from yesteryear, aspiring kingmakers, PAC artists and corporate patriots — are trying to kill the Tea Party graveyard dead, so the patricians can retreat to the gentle Capitol Hill life of going along to get along. Tea Party zealots, who think passion and zealotry in the cause of reform is what the market is waiting for, are out to teach the party establishment to treat them with a little respect. No more Rodney Dangerfield.

Establishment Republicans, with their green-eyeshade DNA, are always afraid of controversy, and learn to deal with it reluctantly, and usually not very well. This puts them at disadvantage, often fatal, with Democrats, who love hubbub, chaos and brawling. “Democrats are like alley cats,” a wise old party elder in the South once observed. “Democrats fight, and alley cats fight, and the result is more Democrats and more cats.”

Tea Party Republicans usually come equipped with more fire and zeal than smarts and moxie, but they’re learning. In the recent past they had to learn the hard way with little help from the experienced party establishment. The Republicans might have taken the Senate four years ago if several of the party regulars who could have helped inept nominees had not jeered from the sidelines after their candidates lost in the primary.

Several Democratic senators were begging to be picked off, but incompetent nominees, including two who said dumb things about rape and abortion, saved the Democratic majority. They were left twisting slowly, slowly in the wind. Two years ago, the establishment got the candidates it wanted in North Dakota, Ohio and Montana, and lost just like the Tea Party upstarts.

The Tea Party, says Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who managed the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2010 and 2012, says the Tea Party movement “was the wind at our backs in 2010,” but when fissures opened the party produced “candidates who could get nominated but who couldn’t get elected, and that’s obviously not the goal.”

Two upstarts this year are state senators, Joni Ernst in Iowa and Chris McDaniel in Mississippi. Mrs. Ernst looks like a fashionable Junior League matron, rides a Harley hog, commands the largest battalion in the Iowa National Guard as an Army lieutenant colonel (her husband is a retired sergeant major), and talks like an earthy Democrat. She boasts that as an Iowa farm girl she learned to castrate hogs and that will make her effective in cutting pork in Washington. Some Iowans thought this was in bad taste, but her polls number jumped at once. She emerged from also-ran to contender almost overnight.

Mr. McDaniel has mounted the most brazen challenge of all, as Republicans define brazen. He’s challenging Sen. Thad Cochran, who is running for his seventh term, and he has the endorsement of every Republican who ever sat on a veranda at the country club, sipping pink gin or a Pimm’s No. 1 cup.

Mr. McDaniel, like any well -brought-up Southerner, shows the senator, 76, respect and due deference, but argues that he’s not conservative enough and that six terms is enough for anyone. The Republican establishment, led in Mississippi by Haley Barbour, the former governor, likes the senator for the reason that Mr. McDaniel doesn’t. He’s the king of pork and the emperor of earmarks, just the sort Joni Ernst wants to confront with her pig shears.

The senator has a shrinking lead in the polls, but has little organization — until this year he never needed one — and he lent credence to the charge that he’s out of touch with Mississippi when it was discovered that he lists a rented Capitol Hill basement apartment as his “primary residence.” This is only a little more persuasive than the “rented room with bath” in Dodge City that Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas lists as his Kansas residence. Mr. Roberts is hotly pursued by Milton Wolf, locally infamous as the second cousin, once removed, of Barack Obama. Suddenly, the Republicans are getting to be fun.

Y’all have a great day!

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Lies and Politics

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Casa Crucis is only a few miles from the Missouri-Kansas border. It’s not unusual to hear Kansan political ads on the radio. The big battle in Kansas is that between incumbent US Senator Pat Roberts and Tea Partier Milton Wolfe. Both are running to be the ‘Pub Senatorial candidate in the upcoming Primary

The campaign turned nasty from the beginning—from the Robert’s people. Milton Wolfe correctly, and truthfully, pointed out that Roberts has no permanent residence in Kansas. In Roberts’ own words, he leases a recliner in a friend’s home. Roberts has had no residence in Kansas for decades, but he still claims to be a Kansan.

I expected Roberts to refute Wolfe’s claims. He did not. Instead, he went directly to smear mode. He produced supposed Facebook posts from Wolfe that supposedly disrespected clients and making disrespectful comments about some X-Rays.

I have to admit that I’m biased towards Milton Wolfe. I’ve heard him speak and was impressed with his comments and goals. When Roberts released that ad, my immediately thought was how did Roberts get those Facebook comments? Did he hack Wolfe’s account? Did he hire some hackers to do so. Were those comments real? Nothing I’ve been able to find supports Roberts claims.

To the best that I’ve been able to determine, the ad against Milton Wolfe is a complete fabrication. It the comments were accurate, then Roberts broke the law by hacking Wolfe’s Facebook account or having it hacked. I suspect Roberts’ motivation is a poll that shows Wolfe has a strong following in Kansas.

In the end, the question is more whom can you trust? Wolfe who has the facts readily available to support his claims about Roberts non-Kansas residency, or Roberts smear tactics? Personally, I will not support any candidate who chooses to use smear tactics as his primary campaign plan.

Roberts is a long time establishment ‘Pub, a buddy of Mitch McConnell. It’s time for both of them to go.

***

Local Missouri politics aren’t much, if any, better. Here in Cass County, the battle is between the current conservative ‘Pub candidates against the old county Oligarchy. Jeff Cox, whom I support both in time and money, is running for Presiding Commissioner. He was elected to fill a partial, two-year term to complete the term of the previous Commissioner who was removed from office, not for malfeasance, but because of an out-of-state felony conviction. I’ll not go into the background on that, it’s not pertinent in this election.

In the previous county government, two ‘Pubs quit. One, when some questionable contracts were exposed, quit in mid-term. The other, also reportedly involved in questionable contracts and possible fraud, chose to not run for re-election. That last former commission now plans on being the county puppet-master with a personal string of proxy office holders. He already has one in office, the northern county commissioner.

The county Auditor, Ron Johnson, has a primary opponent, too. That opponent is a former employee who was fired for cause and is now one of the Oligarchy’s puppets. It was Ron Johnson who exposed all the fraud and deceit in the former county administration. The Kansas City Star printed an expose about the machinations of the Cass County Oligarchy.

Government Watch | For years, Cass County could be paying for failed broadband and energy projects

April 22, 2014, By DONALD BRADLEY, The Kansas City Star

A recent day in an upstairs office in the Cass County courthouse, Presiding Commissioner Jeff Cox used the acronym “BMT.

 

BETHANY BASHIOUM | Special to The Star Tri-Gen, a generator built to provide electrical power to the Cass County Justice Center, was a failure. It was meant to use renewable energy from sweet sorghum silage to produce methane gas. County officials agreed in 2008 to build the generator at a cost of $15 million. The idea was to provide energy to the Justice Center and then sell leftover power on the open grid. But it turned out the county was prohibited by regulation from selling surplus power, a fact they were unaware of until threatened with litigation.

County Auditor Ron Johnson smiled.

“Before my time,” Johnson explained.

These days, the two talk a lot about things before their time in office and they want to make sure people, particularly voters, know they were nowhere around when two of those things came to be.

Why?

Because the county’s broadband fiber network and Tri-Gen, a generator built to provide electrical power to the Justice Center, both were colossal failures that the county will be paying on for years with nothing in return.

Tri-Gen alone is costing the county $175,000 this budget year, not counting legal expenses.

Both projects were approved by officials no longer in office.

“Mistakes were made in recent years that will take years to recover from,” Cox said.

Today, broadband is dead in the ditch and Tri-Gen is shut down and the subject of lawsuits.

Gary Mallory, who was presiding commissioner when both projects began, declined to comment.

Cox and Johnson hope voters this year don’t hold either of them responsible. They wonder, too, if ending the two projects has anything to do with them facing primary opposition in August.

Killing broadband was difficult, Johnson said, but it was a decision that may have kept the county from filing for bankruptcy.

“We had to take the least bad option,” Johnson said.

To be sure, the county did go through a time of turmoil. The very day a newly elected presiding commissioner was sworn into office, the county prosecutor filed suit to remove him because of a felony conviction.

Another commissioner resigned. The other chose not to seek re-election.

All the while, the broadband and Tri-Gen projects — which began with high hopes and multimillion-dollar price tags — were struggling.

Broadband kicked off in 2011 with the goal of providing high-speed Internet access to 12,000 households and hundreds of businesses in rural areas. The $26 million cost would come from government grants and low-interest loans.

But the federal government withheld grants because of a delay in a county audit. Some contractors did not get paid. One filed suit against the county. The project suffered, too, from not having enough inspectors.

Cox studied the viability of the project after taking office last year. He decided to kill it.

It’s unknown how much money the county will eventually pay for the project. That will depend on the outcome of litigation and whether federal money ever comes through.

Tri-Gen, which would use renewable energy from sweet sorghum silage to produce methane gas, came on board in 2008 when county officials agreed to build the generator at a cost of $15 million. The idea was to provide energy to the Justice Center and then sell leftover power on the open grid.

But it turned out, they were prohibited by regulation from selling surplus power — a fact they were unaware of until threatened with litigation. But it didn’t matter much anyway because, according to Cox, the science behind the project wasn’t viable.

Cox said a pilot project at the University of Central Missouri never worked.

“You don’t build a multimillion-dollar generator without making sure the science works first,” Cox said. “It was a mistake. The county had no business getting involved in that.

“That said, the county was sold a bill of goods.”

Last June, the county sued Universal Asset Management, the contractor for Tri-Gen, and the head of the company, Gary Lee. The suit alleges breach of contract, professional negligence, fraud and misrepresentation.

Universal Asset Management was also the company behind the broadband project. The phone number listed on the company’s webpage is no longer in use.

About a year earlier, Lee and UAM had sued Johnson and Cass County alleging breach of contract.

Lee and his attorney could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, the county is stuck with bills for both. This year’s budget shows $175,000 went to debt service for Tri-Gen, an outlay that may continue for decades.

“When I think of all the things we could have used that money for — sheriff deputies, road repairs,” Cox said. “It’s hard not to be a little angry.

“And we’re going to be paying a long time.”

What about that fired employee who is now running against Ron Johnson? He was fired for releasing documents, without authority, to UAM. His mentor in his campaign against Ron Johnson is an employee of UAM, the former county commissioner who was deeply involved in issuing those fraudulent contracts to UAM. Millions of dollars in those contracts are still unaccounted for and the basis for a number of lawsuits.

What is the motivation of this clandestine oligarchy? Perhaps it is an attempt to hide their actions being investigated by federal authorities. Perhaps it is an attempt to gain control of those offices whose current holders exposed their actions. Control of those offices would allow them to hinder further investigation. Or, perhaps, it is just plain, old, lust for power by any means.

Whatever the motivation, their tactics should be familiar to anyone observant to county politics. They use the same tactics as do democrats.

But there are honest, ethical commissioners in the county, Jeff Cox and one other commissioner. Who is Cox’s best ally in regaining fiscal health to the county? It is the southern county commission—a democrat. The other commissioner, a supposed ‘Pub who hasn’t met a TIF he didn’t like, is a member of the Oligarchy. Many of the county executive decisions are made with a two-vote majority (of the three possible votes.) That majority is Jeff Cox, the presiding commissioner, and the democrat southern commissioner.

It’s significant when the democrat southern commissioner is more interested and involved in keeping the county’s finances in the black while the so-called ‘pub, northern commissioner wants to spend, spend, spend.

 

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/04/22/4976141/government-watch-for-years-cass.html#storylink=cpy

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Milestones

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Missouri House Bill 1439, The Second Amendment Protection Act, passed in the Missouri Senate last night, April 30, 2014, on a vote of 23 to 8. It had passed the House earlier, on April 12, 2014, on a vote of 119 to 41.

According to an email issued by Ron Calzone, the Senate made some language changes that will require another vote in the House. He expects that vote to occur today. The changes are minor language clarifications that do not affect the purpose of the Bill.

April 30, 2014

HB 1439 “passed” in the House 110 to 41 on April 12th, now it has passed the Senate by a vote of 23 to 8. Both votes are enough to override a veto by the Governor.

A few minutes before 7:00 on Wednesday, the Missouri Senate voted 23 to 8 to “third read and pass” HB 1439, the Second Amendment Preservation Act.

Since the Senate made changes to the House version of the bill, the House has to vote on it one more time to accept those changes. If they don’t accept the changes, both the Senate and House will have to vote again.

The Senate made the changes we desired — we put teeth back in the bill and removed the troublesome controlled substances language.

Some other friendly amendments were added prior to taking the bill to the floor, and a couple of technical fixes were added on the floor. Although the changes were not part of the underlying Second Amendment Preservation Act, they are all germane to the bill title and good for gun rights.

The final language of HB 1439, as passed the Senate, will be available here: http://www.house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB1439&year=2014&code=R in a day or two. Be sure to click on the link that says “Senate Sub”, not “Senate Comm Sub” to get the latest round of amendments.

The SAPA portion of the bill can also be viewed here: http://www.mofirst.org/?page=issues/nullification/SAPA/HB1439-Detailed.php

Hopefully, the House will take up HB 1439 as early as tomorrow and pass it without further amendments – then it can be sent to the Governor

We’ll have more new as it develops.

For liberty,

– Ron

One more milestone passed on the road to full passage in Missouri. The vote totals are important. They show enough support in the Legislature to override Jay Nixon’s expected veto.

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I’m glad a local State Representative won’t be running for office again. Why? Here’s why: He allowed a vote on, and voted for, Medicaid Expansion in Missouri, a requirement for the full implementation of Obamacare.

MEDICAID EXPANSION — ‘Medicaid bill wins symbolic vote, inches forward in Mo. House,’ Virginia Young: “In what Missouri House Insurance Committee Chairman Chris Molendorp acknowledged was a symbolic move, a Medicaid expansion measure gained its first committee endorsement of the year today. Molendorp, R-Belton, and the four Democrats on his committee combined to recommend a wide-ranging bill that would expand the public health insurance system to about 300,000 low-income adults. The vote was 5-2, with five Republicans absent. … The 121-page proposal adopted by the committee is modeled on a plan developed by Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City. It attempts to address GOP opposition to Medicaid expansion by requiring a host of changes, such as photo IDs for food stamp recipients and more transparent billing practices for hospitals. But with only 11 days left in the legislative session and GOP leaders opposed to the bill, it’s unlikely to go any further. Molendorp acknowledged as much after the committee vote. — PoliticMo Email, May 1, 2014.

Molendorp says the passage was symbolic. The truth of the matter is that the proposal should have never reached this point. Missouri can’t afford Medicaid Expansion. The Feds will provide funds for three years. After that, the ENTIRE cost burden would fall on the state. We can’t afford such gross unfunded mandates.

***

Impeachment efforts against Governor Jay Nixon reached another milestone yesterday with the completion of public comments in the Missouri House Judiciary Committee. The Committee Chairman, Representative Stanley Cox (R-Sedalia), said he would poll committee members to see if they wanted to vote and move forward.

IMPEACH NIXON? — ‘Mo. House committee considering vote on impeaching Nixon,’ PoliticMo: “The Missouri House Judiciary Committee heard final testimony on Wednesday in favor of resolutions moving to impeach Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. Rep. Stanley Cox, a Sedalia Republican who chairs the committee, said he will now begin meeting with committee members to consider whether to send the resolutions on to the full House. “I’m going to see if there is a majority of the committee that wants to vote,” Cox said. “I haven’t decided how I’m going to vote. I’m going to talk to the other committee and see how they’re going to be.

“The two days of hearings, which began last week, were to hear three Republican-backed resolutions against Nixon. One, sponsored by Rep. Nick Marshall, alleges Nixon violated the Missouri Constitution’s provision banning same-sex marriage in issuing an executive order allowing the Missouri Department of Revenue to accept tax returns from same-sex couples filing jointly with the federal government. It was heard last week. The second, filed by Rep. Mike Moon, was critical of delayed calls for special elections in three vacant House seats. The third, by Rep. Rick Brattin, accused the Nixon administration of releasing private conceal-carry weapons permit source documents to federal authorities. They were heard by the committee on Wednesday. As they did last week, several committee members, including a handful of Republicans, expressed concerns that any legal issue with action from the governor might be better handled in the judicial system. Moon said impeachment hearings are by definition political and should be seen as a constitutional check on the executive branch. … 

“Brattin faced perhaps the most critical reception from the committee. He alleges Nixon’s administration violated privacy concerns in releasing data to the federal government in response to subpoenas, but did not state any specific crime Nixon had committed himself. Instead, Brattin accused Nixon of turning his attention away from the issue and allowing his administration to break the state law banning implementation of REAL ID. But Nixon did act, and let his director of the Department of Revenue go (he resigned at the height of the controversy last year). Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, noted that the court and the state auditor had sided with Nixon on the controversy in noting that he did not break any laws. In other words, two branches of government have sided with Nixon.” http://bit.ly/1fzoDP3 — PoliticMO Newsletter, May 1, 2014

***

While this might not be a milestone, it is revealing about the character of John Boehner. The writer of the article below agrees with my statements that I have written over the last few years.

Is John Boehner Stupid, Bought, or Playing for Other Side?

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Something is wrong with the most powerful Republican in the United States Congress. He is either stupid, bought and paid for by crony corporate interests, or he’s on the other side (a Democrat posing as a Republican). Because nothing else explains the news that the GOP intends to pass immigration reform (i.e. amnesty) this year.

Nothing.

You might be wondering how I know it’s “amnesty?” Because to pass it through Harry Reid’s Senate and to avoid a veto from President Barack Obama, it must include some form of amnesty for illegal immigrants (i.e. future Democratic voters). Nothing could ever pass Harry Reid’s Senate that doesn’t include some form of amnesty, allowing Democrats to wear the crown of conquering heroes to the Latino community and therefore garner more votes for Team Obama in November.

Democrats are about to be crushed. They are drowning. They are desperate to shuffle the deck. Why would any sane GOP leader throw them a life preserver?

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer – the ultimate liberal – is winking and nodding on Sunday morning TV shows like it’s a done deal.

Do you think he’s winking because he’s just agreed in the backroom to a deal that hurts Democratic voters? Do you think the president that has, for all intents and purposes halted deportations, would agree to any bill that sells illegal immigrants down the river? If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you in…Mexico.

Now let’s examine why even discussing (let alone passing) any immigration bill is self-destructive, stupid and political suicide for Republicans.

First, Democrats are on the run. They are about to be destroyed in November. Every poll shows it. Every bit of common sense tells the same story. Every conversation with average middle class Americans proves it. Obamacare has ruined Obama and the Democratic Party. The latest poll shows Obama at 41 percent approval.

There are literally no voters left to support Obama who aren’t being bribed with a government check. Just as I reported earlier this year, Obama’s support among the actual taxpayers, business owners and homeowners of America is darn close to zero.

Knowing this, why would the leader of Congressional Republicans want to change the conversation? Why would he want to let Obama off the hook? Why would he discuss anything but Obamacare for the next six months? Doesn’t Boehner want to win? When you’ve got the opposition on the run, why would you lift your boot off their neck? Makes me wonder which team he’s playing for. What about you?

Why wouldn’t any sane GOP leader keep talking Obamacare 24/7 for six months in a row, until the clock runs out? Millions have lost their coverage; millions more have had premiums raised; millions have lost their doctors; everyone that can think is steaming mad.

The vast majority of people who got free insurance from Obamacare are virtually 100 percent government-addicted, welfare-loving, food stamp-loving, dependent Democratic voters. Obama hasn’t picked up one vote. But he’s gotten millions of independents mad as a hornet’s nest.

AP

AP 

To change the conversation now would be dereliction of duty. If this were the military, Gen. Boehner would be relieved of his command and brought up on criminal charges. He is harming his own troops. He is purposely losing the war. He is pulling defeat from the jaws of victory. Who does that?

Secondly, my grandfather taught me about how to treat your loyal customers. He was a successful small business owner. He always said the key to success was “the customer is always right.”

Why would Boehner poke a stick in the eyes of his best customers? Why would he mock conservatives? Why would he turnoff his loyal conservative base now, on the precipice of a landslide in November? It defies logic.

Third and most importantly, if everyone “in the know” believes the GOP is on the verge of a massive landslide victory (and they are), why would you even think of negotiating an immigration reform bill now?

Think about it. Now it’s a lose/lose. Obama and Reid hold all the cards. But starting in January 2015, with a GOP Senate and House, with Obama an embarrassed, emasculated lame duck, the GOP would hold all the cards.

What Republican leader would be dumb enough to pass the bill now? Wait until 2015 and instead of begging for crumbs, the GOP is dictating the terms of Obama’s surrender. What sane leader would trade a win/win for a lose/lose scenario?

Into this situation steps Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), leader of the party that practices shooting itself in the foot. Boehner is theoretically on our side, yet he wants to let Democrats off the hook for Obamacare, change the conversation to something divisive and controversial, demoralize and anger his own best customers, hand a moral victory to Obama, inspire the Democrats’ core voters, and negotiate from the worst possible position, instead of waiting just a few months to negotiate from the best possible position.

Does any of this make sense to you? So I ask you…

Is John Boehner stupid, bought and paid for, or on the other side? He’s either not thinking clearly, or he’s not on our side. No matter your answer, it’s now clear Boehner has to go.

Normally, I take anything from The Blaze with a large dose of salt. All too often, Beck and his crew have their tin-foil hats on too tight. But…this time they agree with me and say the same, paraphrased, as have I. As the adage goes, the quality of an article is directly proportional to the degree it agrees with you.

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