Tuesday, February 22, 2011

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" fleeces Kansas

From

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" has come to Wichita Kansas. They are going to bestow a beautiful new home for WSU baseball player Carl Hall. As with any national TV show and its celebrities it is easy to get caught up in all of the glitz and national attention while not stopping to think about what a reality show really gets from a community…….FREE LABOUR.
While Carl Hall may a nice guy and deserving of a new house, this show his given free houses to people who could afford to replace their own. Extreme Makeover came in 2005 and built a new home for one that exploded for Kevin and Cathy Nutsch, from Derby. After getting all the free help it turned out they owned prime real estate downtown where they were planning to build the new stadium. Surely there were some actual needy people the show could have helped.
Then there the free materials and volunteers they use to put up these houses. According to The Wichita Eaglethere were about 2,800 people this Sunday alone, who volunteered, wearing blue T-shirts, which I’m sure had the show’s logo on it (free advertising).
It nice that the show does these wonderful things for people who need better homes, but why do they need to come to town and hustle our people for free labor and materials when they make so much money on TV with ads? With all the TV network makes can’t it afford to pay anyone?
This is just one more reality show run by people who know they can find people who want to be on TV and meet celebrities. All they need is a lot of speeches on “giving back to community” as an excuse as to why the volunteers did it without pay. The same old TV scam since reality shows started to flood the airwaves.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Koch political meddling in our politics

If anyone thought that voting out Todd Tiahrt would cut into the government influence of the Koch brothers, they were mistaken. A recent article in The Wichita Eagle reveals that the Koch brothers have found new ways to increase their influence in the US Congress.
Billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, of the Wichita-based Koch Industries has formed the largest single oil and gas political donor to members of the  House Energy and Commerce Committee, ahead of giants like Exxon Mobil. They are contributing $279,500 to 22 of the committee's 31 Republicans, and $32,000 to five Democrats.
One of the new Energy and Commerce Committee members include Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita and he hired a former Koch Industries lawyer as his chief of staff. Other key players include its new chairman, Rep. Fred Upton. He is a Republican from Michigan who was once criticized for being too soft on the EPA. Now he and others are likely to try and gut the EPA to the best of their abilities.
Koch Industries has never taken well to the EPA. They have found political allies and loop holes in their attempts to trash the environment without government interference. For the 2004 election Koch gave $587,000 to politicians.
Koch’s efforts have reached other states such as California. This last  November they supported California’s Proposition 23, which would kill the state’s landmark global warming law. The Koch brothers’ corporation gave $1 million to the Prop 23 campaign, while AFP (Americans For Prosperity, a conservative lobby group which seeks to stop or even roll back environmental protection,) California attempts to stoke grassroots support, and Koch-funded think tanks attack climate policy.
Besides using the AFT, Koch has also infiltrated the Tea Party. The Battle cry of many of these anti-environmentalists is to “oppose job-killing regulations.” So while they use political influence to destroy our environment, they want you to believe it is in our best interest to do that.
This is one more example of a greedy, irresponsible corporation buying off our government.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Kansas lawmakers never learn from the War On Drugs

From
Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;



There is a new movement, in the Kansas legislature, to ban cold remedies that have pseudoephedrine. It is true that underground chemist can make methamphetamine out of that chemical, but banning over the counter health aids is more likely to cause inconvenience to adults than it will be at effectively stopping meth labs.
According too an article in The Wichita Eagle, two states have made such cold medicines prescription only, Oregon and Mississippi. They have had a large reduction in meth labs. But now people have to go to a doctor for a simple cold remedy. But as more states enact such bans, the underground chemist will simply find another source. Ephedrine actually comes from a bush. It would not be hard to grow those. And pseudoephedrine could be illegally exported from other countries.
The violence from drug wars in Mexico should be first hand proof how creating such a black market is a bad idea.
The Kansas legislature has banned K9 and K2 along with a large number of herbs that keep showing up in head shops that can produce a high. No testing is done to see if there is really any danger to these highs--just the puritan belief that any high besides alcohol has to be sinful. Methamphetamine is a dangerous drug. But allowing less dangerous highs would help prevent people from seeking out these more dangerous drugs.
It wouldn’t hurt our lawmakers to take their time when considering banning legal herbs and medicines.