Friday, May 27, 2011

Jobs are down—Republicans hope it will get better in 10 years


From
When it comes to promoting jobs in Kasas, the Republican Party has kept its pledge of helping business with a better business climate, fewer regulations, better tax breaks, and they are hoping these businesses will hire people at some time in the future.
In the short run they are cutting public sector jobs to save tax money. They are reducing the tax base by causing more unemployment. But they have ignored that in order to please businesses.
According to The Wichita Eagle, The 2011 budget authorized 41,521 full-time-equivalent positions. That is 65 jobs less than the previous year.
Cuts made along the way, tally the final jobs number for the state this year, up at 41,147, which is a loss of 374 positions. The 2012 spending plan, beginning July 1, authorizes 39,184 positions, a loss of 1,963 from the current year. That is about a 5 percent reduction.
The cuts in education are causing a shortage of teaching and school staff positions. The Republicans brag that there will be more jobs as the economy expands. They seem to be in no hurry. It seems they want to replace most public sector jobs with private sector ones. They are also willing to wait several years for all this growth to finally bring in some jobs. The jobless can just wait it out. An estimate from The Wichita Eagle claims we still have 20,000 people in Sedgwick County without jobs. Prosperity is right around the corner. It’s a long corner.



Monday, May 16, 2011

First Annual Blogathon

We get no government money for this blog. This week we are asking our readers to pledge a one time donation of 1¢. It is also known as $0.01.
Please don’t pledge a 1/2¢ because out government doesn’t mint those anymore. Just push the donation button and give us your 1¢ pledge.

This is based on the idea of a telethon. For an example check below;

Friday, May 13, 2011

Kansas Gov. Brownback wants to kill public art

From

Gov. Sam Brownback is trying to cut all funding to the Kansas Arts Commission. He seems to want to put a complete end to publicly funded art and replace it with corporate funded art.
He has already announced that its five employees will lose their jobs, according to The Wichita Eagle. Brownback has made no effort to hide his plans to completely de-fund public art in Kansas.
The Kansas legislature, both the house and senate are dominated by Republicans and many are in agreement with Brownback. However some would like to designate $689,000 in the next budget to keep the commission alive, but Brownback is expected to line-item veto that proposal.
Brownback wants to replace the KAC with a non-profit foundation financed by private donations. Such donations often come from corporations who want their logo on everything.
The US is flooded with corporate funding, which usually shows up as corporate logo or name on items somewhere. We just got a new arena in Wichita and it is named after a bank because that bank gave the city some money for the privilege of getting that name on the building.
Traditional art, which goes back to ancient civilizations, is disappearing from the US and most of our artistic talents now go to commercial enterprises and corporate logos. Italy has the Sistine Chapel, and as a friend pointed out, the US has golden arches. Andy Warhol became an important artist by showing us what our culture really looks like. It is obsessed with movie stars and corporate labels.
We need public art to allow our own unique culture to develop without economic interference. This is one place where corporations don’t belong. Ants, bees and termites build structures for them to live in. Termites build mounds that resemble small buildings. None of these insects have art, despite their well organized societies. We are not insects and art separates us from the purely utilitarian nature of such bugs.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Kansas Legislature is killing Public Education

From Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;


We have more teachers, programs and personnel who will be axed from the Wichita School System budget to appease the Kansas Legislators as they take an ax to the state education budget. Other state schools will face similar cuts.
According to KWCH-TV, on Monday, the Wichita school board announced 168 cuts for next year, without saying how many teaching positions will go. Many cuts will be teachers, however others will be other staff positions such as coaches and custodians.
Other state schools will face budget cuts such as Hutchinson, with possibly more than ten positions lost. That school system has been able to meet the cuts through teacher attrition, retirement and by not renewing contracts non-tenured teachers. Salina and Independence are facing similar problems.
Kansas spends more money than most other states on Roads and Highways than it does on education, according to the Lawrence Journal World. It seems the state legislators don’t consider education of its future generations to be a high priority but roadways are very high on the list.

 
Why are they so worried about future generations dealing with a deficit budget when they won’t be educated enough to really understand it.
Kansas legislators are being short sited and just plain unfair to its school age youngsters. Drivers Ed, foreign language courses and some sports activities are due to be cut. Why is this state punishing an entire generation for its own mistakes? Cutting education to balance the state budget is just plain sick. We are destroying our future for a few numbers on the states accounting books. That is insane.

Alice Cooper - School's Out

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Reaction to the death of Osama Bin Laden in Wichita, KS

From

Reaction to Osama Bin Laden’s death has met with mixed reactions here in Wichita KS. Of course many people, including members of the Patriot Guard, Legion bikers held a parade to support U.S. military. Some Kansas politicians also made positive statements. Mike Pompeo, District 4 of the US House of Representatives issued this statement;
"I am thrilled to learn that America has defeated one of our greatest enemies, the former head of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden.
"As a former member of the armed services, I am deeply proud of the courageous work performed by my brethren who worked so doggedly to take down Bin Laden. For years, our intelligence officers, soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors have committed themselves to combating the scourge of terrorism. They deserve our most sincere appreciation for a job well done and I am grateful that those Americans who are responsible for this success are able to return home, unharmed.
"America is now more secure as a result of the strength of our armed services and those who brought this long-running pursuit to a decisive and successful end.  We need also to remember those who gave their lives in this effort -- they will never be forgotten,"
Yet there were a few people, many from the Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas, who were not comfortable with the idea of celebrating a persons death, even if that person was bad. According to Janet Perrell;
Since the "war on terror" began, it has created thousands of Bin Ladens. He's a martyr now and this announcement and the way the US is playing it will most likely create even more. To respond to the 9/11 attack with 2 endless wars and occupations, torture, secret prisons and the deaths of around a million soldiers and civilians has not made us more safe and celebrating his death is jingoistic and barbaric.