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Kansas marijuana laws backward and outdated

From Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;

While Colorado has blazed the trail for legal marijuana, Kansas has done the opposite over the last few years. I can remember when Kansas, as with many other states, began to lower the penalties for marijuana. By 1980, it was not legal, however, the penalties made more sense, marijuana was not a high priority for law enforcement and the drug was no longer being treated as if it were as dangerous as heroin, cocaine and meth amphetamine.
Since that time that trend has reversed here in Kansas. The penalties have gotten worse and marijuana arrests have gone up. Nation-wide there has been a move to push for legalizing the use of marijuana for medical reasons. Also two states have made it legal, Colorado and Washington, the state of Kansas has gone back to the bad ol’ days of treating marijuana as a major dangerous drugs.
According to KANOKLA, a network that has tracked marijuana arrests in Kansas, bout 57 to 61 percent of drug arrests for any kind of drugs in Kansas has been for marijuana possession. That includes minor amounts as well as paraphernalia that can be used for marijuana.
As with other states, Kansas has tougher penalties for possession or sale of any drug near a school. While most of those arrested for possession or sales of marijuana were white males, those charged for possession or sales near a school are almost the same for black and white persons. Some people have accused proponents of marijuana use to have racist intentions. Others accuse the government of using those laws for the state to make money off of the people they catch.
While there haven’t been many politicians in Kansas to push for legalization or even decriminalizing the use of marijuana, there have been a few exceptions. In 2013, Kansas Senator David Haley introduced SB 9, last year, which would establish a medical marijuana program in Kansas similar to those of 20 other states. However there has been stiff resistance to allow the bill to get a hearing, which effectively keeps it stalled.
It’s not surprising that our ultra-conservative law makers here in Kansas are trying to preserve the past. They already live in the past so defending outdated marijuana laws is not a surprise. But people are starting to organize against these laws and there was a rally to change them in the Kansas Capital Building in Topeka just earlier this month. More such rallies are being organized by a number of groups who have coordinated actions through the Marijuana Policy Projects Blog.
The marijuana laws are outdated and are not popular with the people in this state and it is about time there were changed. These backward politicians may have to get out of the way and let people have the kind of rules they want in this state.

 

Don't Bogart That Joint!

Wichita’s Koch Brother’s dirty tricks don’t work in some small towns

There are two important messages in this piece. One is that Wichita’s own Koch Brothers, Charles and David are trying to copy the methods that helped the anti-abortion, so called “pro-life” (for fetuses, not women or their doctors) organizations that learned to take over small offices than no one paid attention to. The anti-abortion groups were able to use those small local offices to pressure higher office politicians and candidates to accept their agenda.

It has been successful for the anti-abortion groups. So it was not surprising that the Koch Brothers, and their many front PACs have tried to use those same tactics.

But the use of big-city mud-slinging tactics doesn’t seem to be helping them win races in all the small places they are trying to take over. The Daily Show covered their lack of success in Coralville, Iowa. Also, this is from Becky Sarwate, Politicus USA;

And this pattern relates similarly to our country’s broken political discourse. The increasingly unproductive, shrill nature of the nation’s legislative branch is yielding a collective estrangement between elected “leaders” and the constituents they are purported to serve. The cynically-minded among us (count me a member of this group) might argue that populist disengagement is one of the explicit goals of some of the more nefarious lobbying groups, who may find it easier to sneak democratically harmful legislation through the back door when no one is looking.

Though it can certainly be argued that the movement toward complete inertia and recklessness at the Federal level has been decades in the making, the situation certainly escalated with the ascension of the Tea Party and its moneyed financial backers. And it’s very possible that no duo has prompted the Tea Party faction to wreak its irresponsible government havoc more than the Koch brothers. The brothers Koch have shielded their patently unpatriotic activities behind the ironically named group, Americans for Prosperity. It has been clear for sometime now that the “prosperity” this concerned body favors begins and ends with corporations, and the top one percent of the nation’s wealth holders.

But while Team Koch has a virtual stranglehold on Washington Republicans, Americans for Prosperity is finding it a bit harder to ram its agenda down the throats of voters at the local level – folks who have suffered in real time at the hands of a low tax, low personal freedom (for minorities, women and the gay community), low job creation agenda.

Monday morning’s edition of The New York Times carried a feature story entitled, Koch Group Has Ambitions in Small Races. At first glance this is a rather dispiriting headline. But a closer read carries a beacon of hope for those wondering when the predatory siblings might get their comeuppance. Writer John Eligon takes a look at the coming local elections in Coralville, Iowa, where voters are preparing to select their next Mayor and City Council members.

It is important for activist to pay attention to the antics and dirty tactics of the Koch Brothers, their Americans of Prosperity and all their other phony PACs. 

Here are the Kansas Politicians who belong to ALEC

Next to Charles and David Koch, few things threaten to destroy Kansas democracy as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The group has many elected officials as members and it welds politicians to business people. The group holds secret meetings where business people and politicians decide what kind of laws the rest of us are supposed to live by. Below is a list put together by Dawn Marie Booher. This list is not complete. Some of these politicians have left office since this list was compiled. -សតិវ អតុ

Karen Brownlee R, Kansas Senate[55]

Terry Bruce R, Kansas Senate[27][77]

Rob Bruchman R, Kansas House of Representatives[24][77]

Steve Brunk R, Kansas House of Representatives[78]

Terry Calloway R, Kansas House of Representatives[77]

Richard Carlson R, Kansas House of Representatives[54]

Pete DeGraff R, Kansas House of Representatives[78]

John Faber R, formerly Kansas House of Representatives[78]

Mario Goico R, Kansas House of Representatives[27]

TerriLois Gregory R, Kansas House of Representatives[77]

Amanda Grosserode R, Kansas House of Representatives[77]

Gary Hayzlett R, Kansas House of Representatives[27]

Carl Holmes R, Kansas House of Representatives[78]

Mitch Holmes R, Kansas House of Representatives[54]

Deena Horst R, formerly Kansas House of Representatives[78]

Steve Huebert R, Kansas House of Representatives[54]

Lynn Jenkins R, U.S. House of Representatives[53]

Richard Kelsey R, Kansas Senate[54]

Lance Kinzer R, Kansas House of Representatives[24][77][78]

Marvin Kleeb R, Kansas House of Representatives[77][78][78]

Forrest Knox R, Kansas House of Representatives[54][77][78]

Garret Love R, Kansas Senate[77]

Julia Lynn R, Kansas Senate[77]

Peggy Mast R, Assistant Majority Leader Kansas House of Representatives[54]

Ty Masterson R, Kansas Senate[78]

Kelly Meigs R, Kansas House of Representatives[77]

Raymond Merrick R, Kansas Senate[5][77]

Jerry Moran R, United States Senate[57]

Susan Mosier R, Kansas House of Representatives[77]

Don Myers R, Kansas House of Representatives[54]

Ralph Ostmeyer R, Kansas Senate[54][77]

Joe Patton R, Kansas House of Representatives[24][54]

Mike Petersen R, Kansas Senate[21]

Mary Pilcher-Cook R, Iowa Senate[54][55]

Larry Powell R, Kansas House of Representatives[77]

Dennis Pyle R, Kansas Senate[55]

Marc Rhodes R, Kansas House of Representatives[54][55][78]

John Rubin R, Kansas House of Representatives[27][77]

Ronald Ryckman R, Kansas House of Representatives[77]

Scott Schwab R, Kansas House of Representatives[54][55][77]

Sharon Schwartz R, Kansas House of Representatives[55]

Chris Steineger R, Kansas Senate[21][77]

Todd Tiahrt R, Formerly U.S. House of Representatives[54]

Susan Wagle R, Kansas Senate[78]

Kevin Yoder R, U.S. House of Representatives[53

Brownback rides education down

When I first read this, I thought it might be a joke. But then I had to remember that our Kansas governor is one of the most idiotic governors ever elected to public office. As a person who works in the education system I take a special interest in articles like this. This is the first I have heard of this policy, but it is true that Kansas is one of the highest spending states on highway projects and one of the lowest in basic education. -Otto’s War Room

From F5 (a Wichita alternative newspaper):

January 30, 2014

By Don Winsor

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, best known as the crazy neighbor "Monroe" from the '80s sitcom Too Close For Comfort, announced this week that under his guidance Kansas is assured to achieve yet another extraordinarily high ranking in doing things terribly.

Late last year, a national survey revealed that only Alabama and Wisconsin had cut more funding per pupil in our educational system since 2007-2008. While many states slowly returned funding levels to normal or more as the economy recovered, Brownback and others in his camp claimed to be unable to afford such action while at the same time making huge income tax cuts.

"We found ourselves in rare company, only behind those two great states," stated the hilarious former television sidekick in an interview Saturday. "Still, I knew we could do better. We will be first in the nation at lack of education funding, broseph. That's how I came up with our new Road To Education program."

Brownback's new program would cut all direct funding to schools and would give each child in the state a timecard. Each child would earn hours of education through work maintaining and building the state's roads and highways. Sixteen hours of labor would earn a child a week of public education, with the assumption being that children would be available to work eight hour days on Saturdays and Sundays.

For the rest click here.

Pix from www.pitch.com. 

Wichita’s Koch Brothers plan massive attacks on what is left of our democracy

Wichita Kansas is the home town the most politically ambitious billionaires in the whole country. Those two billionaires are Charles, and David Koch. These are the men who believe that their money makes them way smarter and more deserving of a government of their liking than the poor suckers who work for a living, keeping their financial empire afloat. Most of those people can barely afford to send $100 to their favorite politicians running for office and many will just vote and that is it.

When I was young I constantly heard that fascism and communism where a threat to our “democracy.” If anything threatens what is left of our democracy it is the idea of billionaires taking over the country and setting themselves up as political and financial war lords.  Their desire is to control over institution that our lives depend on, from health care to the news media.  

It was just two years ago that the Koch brother’s network raised  $400 million in an attempt to destroy the presidency of Barack Obama. That was a bitter disappointment for them and other billionaires such as Donald Trump when their money didn’t pay off.  They also spent a lot of money on other conservative politicians.

All indications are that we will see a record amount of money in the next elections as these billionaires try to destroy the Democrat’s hold of the Senate and spending on local races all across the country to build their empire from the bottom up.

They will funnel much of this money to a network of conservative organizations that are set up to look like grass roots organizations, but are actually just front groups to push the Koch brothers conservative agenda.

According to POLITICO; The shift is best illustrated in the expansion of three pieces of the Koch political network expected to be showcased or represented at the three-day meeting in Palm Springs, whose evolving roles were described to POLITICO by several sources.

• Center for Shared Services: a nonprofit recruiter and administrative support team for other Koch-backed groups, which provides assistance with everything from scouting office space to accounting to furniture and security.

• Freedom Partners: a nonprofit hub that doled out $236 million in 2012 to an array of conservative nonprofits that is now expanding its own operation so that it can fulfill many of the functions of past grantees.

• Aegis Strategic: a political consulting firm started last year by Koch-allied operatives who will recruit, train and support candidates who espouse free-market philosophies like those beloved by the Kochs, and will also work with nonprofit groups in the Koch network, like Freedom Partners, with which it has a contract to provide policy analysis

There are other potential front groups they can make use of including Center to Protect Patient Rights. We can be assured that this group is dedicated to destroying Obama-care and making sure that poor people, especially the working poor and those on minimum wage, will be denied any kind of health care.

There is also their main front group Americans for Prosperity.

And the Koch Brothers are not just spending money to promote their ideology. They are saving themselves lots of money, opposing any kind of environmental regulations, minimum and livable wages for their employees, no safety regulation, not taxes (those are for the little people to pay such as their employees) not entitlements, even social security and avoiding having to spend virtually nothing for the poor and middle classes healthcare.

When the Koch Brothers talk of freedom or economic freedom, they are not talking about the 99% of us struggling for a living, they are talking about the 1% such as them. And that freedom they want comes at out expense.

This is the time to work harder to destroy these people’s efforts and eventually get RID of the Koch Brothers. 

Sources: Some of this information came from The Washington Post , The Wichita Eagle, and Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner.

Huelskamp needs to stop grandstanding

From JOHN J. MESH, posted in The Wichita Eagle:

As a Hutchinson native, I was disgusted by comments by U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler.

Huelskamp criticized President (Barack) Obama for politicizing the military when he highlighted Cory Remsburg, an Army Ranger who was a guest of first lady Michelle Obama. Remsburg, who was nearly killed in Afghanistan during one of his 10 deployments, rose slowly from his seat and was greeted by long and thunderous applause from the president and lawmakers.

Huelskamp tweeted that Obama was acting like an imperial president, a king, that his executive orders were “dictates,” and that he was lawless. Has Huelskamp ever read the part of the Constitution that gives the president expanded powers? Obama had to resort to executive orders because of Huelskamp and the obstructionist wing of the GOP.

Huelskamp is another one of these off-his-rocker tea partiers. When interviewed on MSNBC by Rachel Maddow, he wouldn’t answer her questions directly.

It’s about time Huelskamp started listening to the people in his district

— all of them, including those who didn’t vote for him — instead of grandstanding on Twitter, on WorldNetDaily and even on MSNBC.

John J. Mesh is a copy editor for the Enid News, in Oklahoma.