Category Archives: Kansas

Good Friday Report

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I apologize for not posting yesterday. I had a dental appointment and didn’t get home until late in the day.

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For millions of Christians, today is a day of remembrance. Some ignorantly claim it’s a celebration. It is not. It’s an acknowledgment of debt to one who paid all for all of us. The celebration is on Easter. The unchurched and ignorant dcann’t discern the difference between the two days.

This blog, however, is political rather than religious. In many cases, the two views are in alignment. In one such arena is the choice of mass welfare. On one hand many claim that we should support those in need. I doubt anyone would argue against that. However, many of those in ‘need’ are not. They are in a situation of their own making and refuse to extricate themselves from that situation. They depend on the largess of others while doing nothing to better themselves, to remove themselves from a life of parasitism. Generations subsist in such environments and blame others for their own failings.

Those of us of a conservative bent prefer to help those who are willing to accept that help to better their livelihood, to better their skills in search of employment, to work, study, learn, to educate themselves so they need not be dependent on the charity of others. We had a small victory in the Missouri Senate this week. An attempt to extend dependency in Missouri, to bolster the cult of parasitism failed in Jeff City.

Missouri Senate defeats proposal to expand Medicaid

Mar 31, 11:33 PM CDT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri senators have defeated a proposal to expand eligibility for Medicaid.

The Senate on Tuesday voted 25-9 against the measure.

Democratic Sen. Paul LeVota proposed adding the amendment to a bill that would ensure the state continues to receive certain funding for Medicaid.

The vote follows rallies in the Capitol and across the state calling on lawmakers to debate expanding the joint federal and state health care program for low-income residents.

States can receive additional funding for raising eligibility under Democratic President Barack Obama’s health care law.

But Missouri’s Republican legislative leaders have called the measure a nonstarter.

This amendment should be a nonstarter. The democrats ignore one extremely important proviso of Obama’s assistance—it’s temporary. And when the subsidies expire, Missouri will be left holding the bag for ALL the costs of the medicaid expansion. Why? Because Medicaid is a primary component of Obamacare. The feds, by themselves, cannot pay for the enormous costs of Obamacare. They need to steal from us to do so…one way or another. Expanding medicaid is one such scheme.

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Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed legislation yesterday permitting concealed carry by Kansas residents without a permit. Existing Kansas concealed carry permits will still issued as before to allow Kansans to carry out-of-state where the Kansas CCW permit is recognized.

A similar bill has been filed in Jefferson City. It too would allow concealed carry without a permit while retaining the existing CCW permit structure. The bill was filed late in this year’s session but it is being sponsored by well-known supporters. The bill, along with allowing CCW on public transportation was heard in committee this week.

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In local news, the liberals in Kansas City, lead by Mayor Sly James, are proposing to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 and hour. Seattle did so last year and the results are in—restaurants are failing and closing all over the city. Sly James would like to do the same to Kansas City—kill jobs and close businesses.

Many of Kansas City’s business owners are unaware of this proposal. During my visit to the dentist yesterday, he said he had just given his assistant a raise to $9 and hour. I told him that soon he’d have to raise her to $15 an hour if Sly James had his way. He was unaware that could happen. He’s a small businessman employing just three people. Wages and salaries are a significant portion of his business expense. A sudden increase in his cost of doing business could put him in dire constraints!

He asked if they knew of the consequences of such an increase. “How could anyone be so stupid?” he asked.

And stupid it is. The increase wouldn’t hit just the food industry. It would affect many small businesses like my dentist as well as large organizations…like the Kansas City School District.

Many (most?) of the school districts para-professionals are only paid $8-9 and hour. They would be affected too and the increase would bust the already horribly large school district budget. According to the Kansas City district’s payroll data, the increase of the minimum wage would affect 1,447 employees of the district who are currently paid less than $15 and hour. How many of these employees would have to be laid off?

This situation is what we’ve come to expect from the incompetency of the left. Money appears whenever they want it from an overflowing pot of money that is magically extracted from…somewhere. Taxpayers however, know who is the source of this rapacious demand for more and more money—democrats.

 

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Political Fallout and Taxes

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Newly elected Missouri GOP Chairman John Hancock

The controversy surrounding newly elected Missouri GOP Chairman John Hancock is not subsiding. Calls for Hancock’s resignation continue but the state’s GOP establishment, such as Roy Blunt, Ann Wagner and others are keeping quiet. Catherine Hanaway is not escaping unscathed. It was her political adviser, Jeff Roe, a Kansas City-based Republican political consultant, who created a vile radio ad that was broadcasted across the state. In that ad Schweich was called, “a little bug,” and was referred to as, “Barney Fife.”

Hancock must go!

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Across the state line, Sam Brownback, who handily won re-election amid challengers from a plethora of RINOs and democrats masquerading as ‘Pubs, is working on the state budget. One of the election issues was tax cuts and it was one of the planks of Brownback’s campaign. Now it’s time to him to fulfill that pledge.

According to the Kansas CIty ‘Red’ Star, Kansas is facing a shortfall in revenues. They, and Kansas Libs and RINO (are there any difference between the two?) blame income tax cuts for the shortfall. Instead the real culprit is that Kansas has been, and is, outspending their revenue. Perhaps it is time for a requirement of all state legislators and administrators to take a debt reduction course by Dave Ramsey.

Until then, Kansas continues to spend, spend, spend. Uncontrolled spending with no oversight where, how, nor why spending occurs. Every dollar in Kansas’ budget should have a target, a goal, a plan that is to be accomplished for that dollar.

That has not happened. It is now time for it to happen

The real problem with all levels of government is the lack of real, well-thought out and well-studied plans. Regardless if taxes go down or up, government must have goals to direct their spending or reduced spending.  All too often government throws money at issues with no goals nor plans for the funds and then are surprised then no goals are set, nor when nebulous expectations of the spending fail to appear.

No goals.

Brownback appears to realize this. The libs and RINOs continue to scream for more money on education. The truth is that education wastes the funds they receive today. With careful planning and reducing the discretionary spending by the state’s educators, real results can be achieved. In past years, educators and their sycophants have deliberately sabotaged any efforts to rein-in their wastage. Perhaps term-limits for the Board of Regents and the other state educational boards—and elimination of tenure, would be a start in the reconstruction of education within the state.

It’d be a good start.

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Told ya so

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During the runup to the general election last month, I wrote a number of blog post concerning the Kansas Senatorial race. Specifically, I took Greg Orman to task for being a democrat masquerading as an ‘independent.’ I said that he was a dem and would always be a dem. Orman never contradicted me, nor anyone else. In fact, he steadily refused to answer any questions on how he would vote as Senator or even which party he would join, or caucus, if elected.

I said he was a democrat and I was right. My opinion has been vindicated.

Yes, Dems did funnel money to ‘independent’ in Kansas Senate race

By Byron York | December 8, 2014 | 6:38 pm

Anyone who followed this year’s Senate race in Kansas — the one longtime GOP incumbent Pat Roberts appeared to be losing to Greg Orman, the businessman running as an independent — knows Orman and his supporters vigorously denied Roberts’ allegation that Orman was really a Democrat running to further the Democratic agenda.

“By word, by deed, by campaign contribution, this man is a liberal Democrat,” Roberts said of Orman during a debate in October. “A vote for Greg Orman is a vote to extend the Barack Obama/Harry Reid agenda.”

Not true, Orman answered. “The senator can say that over and over again, but it doesn’t make it so.”

What voters did not know was at that very moment, Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid’s political action committee, the Senate Majority PAC, was preparing to pour more than a million dollars into the pro-Orman effort in Kansas. Reid was just waiting to make sure the donations came so late in the campaign that the public wouldn’t find out about them until after the election.

Note that a number of Kansas ‘moderates’, what real ‘Pubs call RINOs, supported Orman against Roberts.

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I suppose this section of today’s blog could be titled, “Rampant Lawlessness.” Some information is coming to light about Obama’s Amnesty Executive Orders…there aren’t any, at least, not yet. Senator Jeff Sessions has been dogging Obama and discovered this bit of information.

Executive Amnesty Order? What Order?

Posted on December 8, 2014 by John Hinderaker

So much is happening on the immigration front that it is hard to keep up, but this story is worth at least a mention: it turns out that President Obama hasn’t issued an executive amnesty order after all:

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a leading opponent of President Obama’s move to provide amnesty for up to 5 million illegal immigrants, expressed astonishment Monday and ridiculed the administration for not carrying out the action through an executive order.

In remarks made at the Washington office of the government-watchdog group Judicial Watch, Sessions said: “I guess they just whispered in the ear of (DHS Director) Jeh Johnson over at Homeland Security, ‘Just put out a memo. That way we don’t have to enforce the law.’”

The news that Obama had not signed an executive order to carry out the policy he announced to the nation in a televised address Nov. 20 was broken by WND Senior Staff Writer Jerome Corsi last week.

As a result of the president’s use of a memo instead of an official order, the senator observed: “We don’t even have a really significant, direct, legal direction that we can ascertain, precisely what the president is doing. It’s a stunning event in my view.”

It is indeed. The explanation, I assume, is that Obama thinks it will be harder to mount a legal challenge to his unconstitutional usurpation if there is no actual order that defines what he has done. There is no bottom to the depth of the Obama administration’s corruption.

Have we been lied to, again, by Obama, or is he taking his lawlessness to greater heights? That is a good question that I have no answer. Of course with this tactic it is DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson who is hanging in the breeze, not Obama.

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Followup: MO Constitutional Amendments

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I wrote about the four Missouri Constitutional Amendments that will appear on the ballot November 4th.  I recommended voting YES for amendments 2, 3 and 10; voting NO on amendment 6.

Yesterday I reported that I’d seen ads only about Amendment #3, the education reform amendment. Since then, an ad has appeared about Amendment #10 that would constrain the governor from withholding appropriated funds at his whim.

The ad below, using a Kansas City resident and sponsored by the Missouri Club from Growth, if very effective. Watch, listen and understand why this amendment is necessary.


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Amendment #6, a bad amendment to loosen the constraints on absentee voting, is getting some press as well. Negative press, that is. The St Louis Post-Dispatch reported that even democrat Secretary of State Jason Kander is not supportive of the amendment.

Early voting proposal draws opposition from Missouri elections official

By Virginia Young vyoung@post-dispatch.com 573-556-6181

JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander wants to make it easier for people to vote before Election Day. But he opposes Amendment 6, the advance voting proposal that the Legislature placed on the Nov. 4 statewide ballot.

Kander, the state’s chief elections official, said in an interview Monday that the proposed constitutional amendment would set up a confusing system of on-again, off-again voting, cost the state $2 million and jeopardize the security of the ballot box.

“I’m a huge proponent of early voting, but I can’t support changing the constitution in a way that will require us to go back and fix it almost immediately,” said Kander, a Democrat.

Current Missouri law provides for absentee voting up to six weeks prior to an election provided the voter states he is out of the area or unable to vote on election day. Unfortunately, most county clerks rubber stamp absentee ballot requests and fail to ask for justification as required by law. Our current absentee voting is rife with fraud. We do not need to make voting fraud easier.

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Political columnist Michael Barone, writing for Rasmussen Reports, examines the Kansas and South Dakota senatorial races where ‘independents’ may win. Barone says…

Will Independent Candidates’ Support Dissipate in Kansas and South Dakota?

A Commentary By Michael Barone

One question I’m asked in every electoral cycle is, “What are the surprise races in this election?” My answer in recent years has been, “There are no surprises, because any unexpected development becomes universally known in seconds.”   

There have been two such developments in this cycle. One in Kansas: the emergence about five weeks ago of independent Greg Orman (and the withdrawal from the ballot of the Democratic nominee) as a strong competitor against 34-year Capitol Hill veteran Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.   

The other was in South Dakota: a poll showing Larry Pressler, a former Republican senator running as an independent, within the statistical margin of error of Republican nominee Mike Rounds and ahead of Democrat Rick Weiland.

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Unless these polls are dreadfully wrong, there’s no question that many Kansas and South Dakota voters have been changing their minds. That’s in contrast to the relatively static preferences of voters in other states with serious Senate contests, where only a few percent seem to have been moving around.   

Both these states’ contests feature purportedly independent candidates. In September, Gallup reported, 58 percent of Americans said that a third political party was needed. So maybe it’s not surprising that, when presented with a well-known independent candidate, many voters consider voting for him.

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An independent presidential candidate who achieves critical mass can be competitive, as Ross Perot seemed to be until he withdrew suddenly in July 1992 or as polls in 1995 suggested Colin Powell would have been as an independent candidate. But usually support for third candidates dissipates by Election Day.   

Will it this year? Perhaps Pressler, who voted twice for Obama, will displace Weiland as the chief alternative to Rounds in South Dakota. But he faces an uphill climb in a state that voted 58 percent for Mitt Romney.  

In Kansas (60 percent Romney), Roberts has banked on that with a simple message — I’m the real Republican; he’s a Democrat. He’s running even if you average the three polls conducted this month.   

My guess is that oscillating polls will give way to familiar results in South Dakota and Kansas…or maybe not.

The latest Kansas poll released this week showed a reversal for Pat Roberts over Greg Orman. I’ve not seen one for South Dakota but I would not be surprised to see a reversal there as well for Republican Mike Rounds over Independent Larry Pressler. In three weeks, we’ll see who wins and which poll and analyst was correct.

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Polls and more polls

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The 2014 general election is twenty-six days away. As expected, numerous races around the country are tightening, shifting. The surprise from the latest round of polls is the shift, in some races, from dems being in the lead to ‘Pubs.

Kansas, perhaps, was the greatest surprise. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback, a few weeks ago, were trailing significantly against their liberal opponents, Greg Orman and Paul Davis. Both ‘Pubs were behind at least 5% points, more for Roberts. A poll released this week shows a significant shift.

VOTERS TUNE IN, TURN OFF DEMS
The latest batch of Fox News polls reveal that as voters tune in to midterm contests they’re flipping past Democratic candidates as President Obama’s dire unpopularity takes its toll. In Kansas, where the president sits at 63 percent disapproval, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is turning his race around. Roberts leads independent Greg Orman 44 percent to 39 percent. A mid-September Fox News Poll had Orman leading 48 percent to 42 percent.
 
[After a slew of unfavorable polls, Gov. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has also rebounded, leading Democrat Paul Davis 46 percent to 40 percent.]

Two Republican incumbents are fighting to keep their jobs in Kansas.The new Fox News poll finds both of them — Sen. Pat Roberts and Gov. Sam Brownback — have jumped ahead of their challengers.

CLICK FOR THE POLL RESULTS

“We know that partisanship tends to assert itself as Election Day nears,” said Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News poll along with Democratic pollster Chris Anderson.“And that may be happening in Kansas.”

The Senate race clearly remains competitive, as 44 percent of likely voters in Kansas back Roberts, with 39 percent for independent Greg Orman and 3 percent for libertarian Randall Batson. Yet Orman was up by six points in a two-way matchup three weeks ago (48-42 percent).

Democrat Chad Taylor withdrew from the race September 3, and subsequently the court decided a Democrat does not have to appear on the ballot.

Roberts has a bit more strength of support: 82 percent of his backers say they are certain to vote for him. It’s 76 percent for Orman.

Some 73 percent of Republicans back Roberts, while 71 percent of Democrats support Orman. Independents go for Orman by 45-34 percent. Roberts maintains his overall vote advantage because there are so many more Republicans than Democrats in the Sunflower State.

Men are supporting Roberts by 50-37 percent, while women back Orman by a narrow 40-38 percent margin. — FOX News.

If you dig deep into the polls, you will find one consistency that appears to be driving the shift—Obama’s continuing drop in favorability among voters. That increase in dissatisfaction is spreading to democrat candidates.

Alaska is another state showing a shift against dems. ‘Pub Senatorial candidate Dan Sullivan is another beneficiary of Obama’s disapproval by voters. Sullivan is now leading democrat Mark Begich 44% to 40%. Prior polls were too close to call in that race. One cause for Begich’s slide was a particularly libelous ad that Begich was forced to pull.

‘Pubs in the Arkansas, Colorado and Kentucky Senatorial races benefit in Obama’s slide as well. ‘Pub Representative Tom Cotton, leads democrat Senator Mark Pryor, 46 percent to 39 percent.

In Colorado, with its liberal-leaning metropolitan areas, a voter backlash against liberal democrats appears to be building. Mark Udall, the incumbent democrat Senator, is behind his ‘Pub opponent.

The unpopularity of ObamaCare could sink Sen. Mark Udall’s, D-Colo., re-election prospects with 52 percent saying the law “went too far.” While Obama held a 54 percent approval during Fox News 2012 exit polling in the state, he now holds a 57 percent disapproval. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Ky., now tops Udall 43 percent to 37 percent. — FOXNewsletter, October 9, 2014.

Republicans in Colorado are much more enthusiastic than Democrats about the upcoming election, and that explains — at least in part — why the new poll shows Rep. Cory Gardner topping Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall by 43-37 percent.

Among likely voters here, nearly half of Republicans (48 percent) are “extremely” interested in the election, while less than a third of Democrats (31 percent) feel that way. This could be even more important here than in some other battleground states because Colorado now votes 100 percent by mail and people can register to vote up through Election Day.

Gardner’s support is stronger, with 85 percent of his backers “certain” to vote for him compared to 80 percent of Udall’s.

Independents (+15 points), men (+17), gun owners (+29) and white evangelical Christians (+38) are more likely to back Gardner. — FOX News.

Even in Kentucky, where democrat candidate Allison Lundergan Grimes once lead Mitch McConnell, Obama is the anchor dragging her down (not to mention a particularly damning video where Grimes is seen to say she’ll vote differently, more liberally, after being elected.) A shift in the independent vote has McConnell leading, 45 percent to 41 percent.

Even projected voter turn-out appears to be shifting against the democrats. The Washington Examiner published an article with their turnout expectations.

A new Gallup poll suggests voter turnout will be low in November, with higher Republican turnout predicted… Gallup found enthusiasm higher among the GOP, a result that suggests Democrats may have a more difficult time on get-out-the-vote efforts needed to support their candidates. Among those motivated to vote, 44 percent were Republican and 28 percent were Democrats.

However, it is proper for us to remain pessimistic and work harder to win next month. We may have a shift in the polls but there is only one poll that counts, the one taken on Tuesday, November 4th, 2014.

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Election Prognostications

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The November General Election is a month away and races across the country are tightening. I’ve been following the Kansas Senatorial (Roberts vs. Orman), and to a lesser extent, the Gubernatorial (Brownback vs. Davis), race. My prediction: Roberts and Brownback are toast.

I’d prefer ‘Pub wins in both offices but that is not going to happen. Kansas has always had a strong RINO contingent. The reality of Kansas politics is that liberals have always ruled the state either outright as democrats or stealthily as RINO ‘Pubs. Brownback’s win for Governor in 2010 as a conservative is a rarity.

The reasons for the Brownback’s probable loss is different from Roberts. For Roberts, it is his time to go. He ran a vile, mudslinging race against Milton Wolf and alienated the state’s conservatives. Now that he needs their votes, they aren’t there. They still remember Roberts’ negative primary campaign and they will either vote against Roberts or not vote at all.

Brownback’s probable loss is different. He was betrayed by ‘moderate’ ‘Pubs who banded together to support democrat Davis for Governor.

Why? Many reasons, some because Brownback is a conservative and took on the state’s Education Mafia. Others back Davis because Brownback is trying to cut Kansas taxes. That, the traitor’s believe, means budget cuts for education.

Kansas education is over-funded. The problems with education in Kansas aren’t due to a lack of funds, it is because those funds have been squandered on non-education projects. Lining the pockets of the education unions for one. Whenever any education reform is attempted, the Education Mafia runs to the courts; courts that have been loaded over the years with liberal, activist judges from local circuit courts up to the state Supreme Court. Just look how that court rewrote state law with the dems wanted to remove their own senatorial candidate to shift votes to their other candidate, Greg Orman.

From my perspective as a non-Kansas resident, Brownback is a great governor. Kansas, as a state, however, is still ruled by an liberal oligarchy that despises conservatives.

Roberts is a lost cause. He’s drawn heavily on outside help from the NRSC, who helped Roberts campaign against Wolf, to pulling in Ted Cruz to schmooze the conservatives. Cruz was a good idea…until Roberts’ NRSC assistants pull a boner like this one.

Why the GOP will probably lose Kansas in just one Tweet

 By: streiff (Diary)  |  October 6th, 2014 at 11:15 AM

If you want to smell the flopsweat hitting the Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), re-election campaign, there is no better example than this tweet from the NRSC:

The GOP is attacking a guy for being a successful businessman. Does this make sense? Are we against people avoiding taxes? If so, I missed the memo because the GOP is against Obama’s war on corporate inversions. Should I run out and vote for an out-of-touch septuagenarian porkmeister who only survived a primary challenge because of attacks on his opponent that were beneath the dignity of any creature aspiring to the status of “man?”

Walsh, like his fellow-traveler the slightly befuddled Brad Dayspring, seem to have no talent at all beyond attacking conservatives and using the most disgusting calumnies to do so.

If you don’t object to your money being wasted by their truly bizarre choices of candidates to support, then, for Heaven’s sake, be offended that your money is being squandered by idiots.

I repeat my mantra from yesterday:

“I can protect myself from my enemies, but Heaven help me to protect myself from my friends.”

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Yaaawn…

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What a week. I’ve been busy, the news-feeds are fixated, perhaps rightly so, on the Ebola outbreak. Commentators say the CDC is lying. Others say they aren’t. No one, except for a privileged few, really know what is going on nor the danger of a widespread outbreak.

I’m not interested in writing about Ebola. While my major in college was the equivalent of Pre-Med, I am not a medic, nor an EMT. I don’t claim to have any special knowledge other than a high-degree of well-earned skepticism. The real truth of it all, in my opinion, is that no one really knows what will/could/may happen with Ebola.

Change subject.

The political news has vanished from the national news scene in favor of Ebola. CNN is on a witch-hunt searching for contaminated sheets and clothing in Dallas. Ditto for most of the MSM.

In Kansas, Pat Roberts is losing…a result of his own garbage-strewn primary race that alienated his conservative core. All the so-called ‘moderates’, i.e., democrats masquerading a ‘Pubs, are publicly backing Greg Orman, the democrat running as an independent. Yeah, sure.

http://images.politico.com/global/2014/01/15/140115_sam_brownback_ap_605.jpg

KS Governor Sam Brownback speaking before the Kansas Legislature.

The same applies to Sam Brownback who is discovering he can’t buck the über-liberal education and union lobby plus their lust to spend. The Kansas establishment thought they could control Brownback. When they found they couldn’t, they turned to supporting a democrat, thus exposing their true allegiance.

And to top it all off, the Royals are in the playoffs for the World Series. Their run came at an appropriate time to redirect attention to baseball instead of politics. Whatever bangs their gong.

On the Missouri side, Representative John Diehl, the golden-boy chosen years ago to be the next Speaker of the Missouri House, is running into trouble. Conservatives are openly supporting his opponent in an attempt to remove him from office. The conservatives claim that Diehl is no ‘Pub and has blocked significant numbers of crucial, conservative legislation. They are out for payback.

And so the week ends. I’m ready for the weekend.

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