MoveOn rally—Wichitans for Medicaid expansion

From Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner:

Carrying signs that said; “Brownback- Expand Medicaid;” “Honk if you want the GOP to stop blocking Medicaid expansion” and “Healthcare bills are #1 reason for bankruptcy,” protesters held a rally at Old Town Square, in Wichita, Saturday at noon.
“The main message is that money is going to states who accept the Medicaid expansion (federal) funds,” said Jan Swartzendruber, Regional Organizer MoveOn.org. “Our citizens are funding other states for Medicaid (called KanCare here in Kansas) expansion,”
The rally was organized by a local chapter of MoveOn. About 50 people took part in the rally, along 2nd Street. Swartzendruber explained that Kansas citizens are paying federal taxes that go to funding Medicaid Expansion program, a part of The Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, in the states that have agreed to take the funding. Governor Brownback has refused to take the money, because he and other Republicans are so determined to derail Obamacare, they are willing to penalize their own citizens.
“We are holding rallies in Wichita, Topeka and Overland Park,” Swartzendruber said. She added that those towns have local chapters of MoveOn. In Wichita the protesters stood along 2nd Street while cars passed them.
MoveOn members handed out pamphlets about another related issue an amendment to the Prompt Pay bill for KanCare, HB2552. It says that the governor cannot expand Medicaid unless the Republican controlled house and senate approve of it. The new amendment is obviously designed to allow the senate and house to block the next governor from enacting the president’s healthcare reforms. Pols are showing that the Democratic Governor Candidate Paul Davis may beat Sam Brownback in upcoming elections. Republicans in this state are desperate to continue to block healthcare reform and continue to keep those who presently can’t afford healthcare from getting it.
MoveOn members handed out pamphlets that said 77,000 Kansans are without healthcare and cannot get KanCare. These are the people who would benefit from expanding KanCare.
Kansas Republicans, as with Republicans across the country, are doing everything they can to sink the Affordable Care Act. People are beginning to see the benefits of this new act and groups such as MovOn are now trying to let our politicians know they don’t want obstructionists to stop those who need health care from getting it.

 

Communist Party Philippines chief, 6 other top communist execs nabbed

This is breaking important news. We will have to see if these arrests will have a big impact on the “people’s war” in the Philippines.

This is from the Kasama Project;

by Nikko Dizon

MANILA, Philippines—Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin on Saturday night confirmed the arrest of Benito Tiamzon, chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) in Cebu province.

Tiamzon was arrested with his wife Wilma and five other members of the central committee of the CPP-NPA.
Wilma Tiamzon is the secretary general of the CPP-NPA.

“This is a report given to me by the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines). Yes, [arrested were] Benito and Wilma Tiamzon,” Gazmin told the Inquirer by phone.

The arrest of the Tiamzons happened exactly a week before the 45th anniversary of the CPP-NPA on March 29.

Gazmin said the Tiamzons were undergoing “tactical interrogation.”

A few days ago, President Benigno Aquino said that a “big fish” would soon be arrested that would surprise everybody.

Asked if the President was referring to the Tiamzons, Gazmin said: “I don’t know. I guess so. They are a big fish.”

For the rest click here.

Good by Fred Phelps

From Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;

Fred Phelps may be gone, but his reputation lives on. It is easy to ridicule Phelps and portraying him as this evil monster. He was a pain in the rear and extremely obnoxious when he picketed funerals. Almost no one liked that except his band of followers and loonies.
He was probably Kansas most famous personality, next to Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz. He was also the equivalent of a circus freak. People enjoyed hating him, but he was not a real threat to anyone. Despite stepping on flags and blaming homosexuals for 9/11, there are far more sophisticated politicians who have been in place who could have done some real damage to our society. Phelps was more of a distraction. While were all focused on Phelps as a villain, real Republicans in our Kansas House, overwhelmingly tried to pass an anti-gay segregation bill recently. The bill was killed in the Senate. But it should have never been passed in the first place. And it would have had terrible consequences on the state if this bill had passed.
Phelps is a nuisance and he offends people. But the Kansas Republican Representatives actually threatened gay people much more than Phelps ever did.
According to Yahoo News;
“By the time you saw one of his outrageous and hate-filled signs — "You're Going to Hell" was among the more benign — you were already doomed.
Tall, thin and increasingly spectral as he aged, the Rev. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, a small congregation made up almost entirely of his extended family, tested the boundaries of the free speech guarantees by violating accepted societal standards for decency in their unapologetic assault on gays and lesbians. In the process, some believe he even helped the cause of gay rights by serving as such a provocative symbol of intolerance.”
Some of us will miss Fred with all his crazy shenanigans. Some gays may want to dance on his grave. The rest of us are just hoping his hate filled messages will slowly fade away.

Kansas Bill Seeks to Legalize Police Misconduct

This proposed bill is flat out fascism. Rarely do our elected legislators try and pass a bill so blatantly opposed to the rights of the citizens of Kansas. This bill would prevent anyone from reporting abuse. Wichita already has a self policing system were no police officer has ever been found guilty of wrong doing. Internal investigations are just a formality. The police can do no wrong. Now they want to punish people who file complaints. Few people can afford to risk a felony conviction for reporting something that the police are just going to rubber stamp. Kansas politicians have little respect for the rights of common citizens, but this bill is ludicrous.  

 -សតិវ​ អតុ

From The Free Thought Project;

KansasExposed.org

by Michael Shatz

March 18, 201

The Kansas House Standing Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice has introduced a bill that will require private citizens who file complaints against police officers to sign an affidavit, acknowledging that if their allegations are proven false, they can be charged with perjury, which is a felony charge.

Furthermore, this bill prohibits a Kansas law enforcement agency from opening an investigation into a complaint if another law enforcement agency has already investigated the complaint and found in favor of the officer.

In other words, this bill would allow police departments to arrest the people who file complaints against police officers. In Wichita, Kansas, complaints are almost always dismissed, by the Wichita Police Department, so, according to this bill and its vague wording, the WPD, could now go arrest the people who file complaints against their officers.

People in Wichita are already afraid to file complaints against the WPD, because the department has a well-known reputation for retaliating against those who do, and this bill would render such retaliation legal. Furthermore, the bill clearly prevents an outside agency, such as the Kansas Bureau of Investigations, from opening an investigation into an allegation that the WPD has already ruled upon.

For the rest click here.

New park about vets—not freedom

From
Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;
Wichita is now home to a new Operation Freedom Memorial. It is a monument that has the names of those who have fallen in the latest wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last week Anita Dixon, who lost her son, U.S. Army Sgt. Evan Parker, in 2005 Iraq, told The Wichita Eagle that it is honorable that these soldiers will have a park right next to the park that is dedicated to all out other wars, World War I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam and now the new ones.
I don’t have a problem with putting something up to honor soldiers, but the new park has the name “Freedom” in it and those wars have nothing to do with freedom. Our freedom is not affected by those wars at all. Attacks against our freedom come mostly from misguided politicians who want to constantly pass new laws that restrict what we can do.
As for freedom I believe these wars are a matter of supporting the new American Empire. A few years ago some politicians and conservative think tanks came out with the idea of an American Century. It is a characterization of the 20th century as being largely dominated by the United States in political, economic, and cultural terms. It is comparable to the description of the 19th Century as Britain's Imperial Century. This requires US control of the world's oil resources. The United States' influence grew throughout the 20th century, but became especially dominant after the end of World War II, when there were two main superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. After the fall of the USSR in 1991, the United States became the world's only superpower.
Wikipedia give the term hyperpower to the US Empire. Others have called it the most powerful superpower since the Roman Empire.
The Wichita Eagle had a line that claimed; “The monument memorializes Kansans who have died in the fight against terrorism.” That is wrong also. Al-Qaeda has been pushed out of Afghanistan and yet the US has been there over 10 years, propping up a puppet government. They have been fighting the Taliban who have nothing to do, presently, with the war on terrorism.
This and almost all of our wars and foreign policy are aimed at expanding and shoring up support for an expanding U.S. empire. The latest wars are all based on a lies. They keep telling people that our sons and daughters are fighting for freedom and the “war on terrorism” when it just isn’t true. The war on terrorism is being handled from the US. The FBI and intelligence people are not in Iraq, Afghanistan or here at home in the U.S. Terrorists are either in the US already or in Yemen and Syria (fighting along US backed rebels). Iraq was never a hotbed of terrorists and is not now, even though a few al Qaeda fighters have taken advantage of the turmoil the US created there to carve out a place for themselves.
As for freedom and for al Qaeda wanting to take away our freedom, Osama bin Laden said “If it’s freedom we hate, why didn’t we attack Sweden.” Obviously he noticed they have more freedom in Sweden than in the U.S. Osama’s main goal is just to get the US and other Western countries out of the Middle-east. 
This park sits next to Veterans Memorial Park, 339 N. Veterans Parkway. The cost of the new park was about $225,000,
Wichita has always been a pro-military town. People here worship the military they way the worship gun ownership. But it is phony to lead people on to support the efforts of people who may really think they are fighting for these things when it just isn’t true.

Pix from 
www.pbawichita.com

St. Patrick’s Day—Notes on

We all like St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick was probably an ass hole. He supposedly ran the snakes out of Ireland, but there really never were any snakes there. He may have run the various pagan religions out, which is probably how he got to be a saint. He lived about the fifth century. There have been intense political struggles there during the last century. They also had the armed struggle of the IRA.

While most people celebrate with green shamrocks, the better symbol is the starry plough (see picture below). 

John Lennon & Yoko Ono - the Luck of the Irish

From “friendly fascism” to “libertarianism”

When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he and the Republican Party began to use so many strong-arm tactics to get their way that leftists began to call his leadership style “friendly fascism.” Some liberals complained that we were doing an injustice to those who lived under fascist military governments in such places as Argentina and Chile. Yet for many of us, the similarities worked.

Still, rather than shrinking government for the common individuals he did the opposite, trying to restrict all kinds of constitutional rights—free speech, search and seizure laws, expanding the FBI and DEA and launching the fascist-like “war on drugs.”

Since the Tea Party has been making gains in the Republican Party we have a new kind of leadership that is very different and yet it is just as oppressive as the “friendly fascist.” The new word is “Libertarianism.” There is actually a whole political party that uses that name. Their ideas are showing up in the Republican Party, mostly as a part of the Tea Party movement. When the Tea Party uses it, they talked as if they are anarchist freeing all the individual people from government intrusion into their lives. They really do want less government, even an expansion of our civil liberties, especially our gun rights. But the reality is that they aren’t really taking away government oppression—they are transferring it to the private sector. Whether a person is smoking a joint or posting a comment on Facebook that is critical of the military, they will be punished. But not from the police or courts, but fired from their jobs. Repression comes from the private sector. Drug testing allows a corporation to identify a marijuana smoker and they can either force them into a drug treatment facility[i] or just fire them. Some companies have fired people for posting comments or pictures on Facebook that are critical of our country’s hero worship of veterans. They have been fired. So those who break the nation’s rules don’t have to worry about ending up in jail. They have to worry about unemployment, possible homelessness and other necessities of life that come with having a job.

The libertarians are quick to point out that our government does not oppress us for speaking out against it as would happen in Cuba or North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of…). When we point out that people get fired from their jobs they say that is different and the oppression doesn’t count because there is a private unwritten contract that people have with their employers. They made a chose to work for a company. They choose where they work and if they don’t like their employer’s terms they can chose to work elsewhere. So actions by the private sector don’t count.

The Libertarians act as if a job was just a hobby to pass the time and that jobs are easy to get or change. The reality is that jobs are scarce and a lot of people take what they can get. When they are suddenly fired their very survival is at stake. It is not just an inconvenience to get fired; it is a catastrophe for many working people. As many leftists like to say “It isn’t official censorship, but it is effective censorship.”

The new libertarians go far beyond censorship. Corporations are no longer satisfied to back a candidate and simply expect that politician to grant their businesses benefits and advantages. Now they want direct control, sometimes actually writing the laws they want and using dim-witted puppets to get them passed. That is what we have with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). That organization actually merges politics and business in a way that makes them in-separatable. The organization holds large meetings and conventions that bring business people and politicians together behind closed doors that chart out political platforms that all the people will have to live with and endure. The people who vote for them are simply handing their government entities over to business organizations that hope to control all aspects of those voters’s daily life.

Elections have always been about private moneyed interests, behind the scenes, that work for their political interests. It used to be “you wash my back—I’ll wash yours.” Now it is more of a direct ownership. ALEC actually writes new laws to be passed and provides politicians with ready made speeches. The politician can be a complete political dullard as long as he or she is willing to mouth the party line of his/her handlers.

While friendly fascism is a label that tries to draw a parallel to fascist Italy, NAZI Germany or many of the past military governments in South America, libertarianism is actually closer to the warlord system that developed after the fall of the last empress in China, Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后). There was no central government or authority. Private armies of warlords took control of whatever territories they could and ran those territories with absolute power. Peasants and workers were treated as slaves. The war lords could do whatever they wanted to the people at anytime and there was no courts are government system to protect anyone against the whims of the warlords.

The idea is that large corporations can own politicians and carve out pieces of their own territories. With smaller government they can create a situation where they actually have more authority than government agencies, such as courts, regulatory agencies, even police. The Koch Brothers, David and Charles, are the most visible and active single company that has taken action to create their own empire within the US and they have their own think tanks and fake grass roots organizations, such as Americans for Prosperity.

The overall goal of the libertarians is just as right-wing as any type of fascism. Yet the mechanics of this trend are completely different. We need to be aware of the dangers of this trend and expose it to the people whenever it is possible.     

 -សតិវ​ អតុ

Corporations are so integrated to the political system, they now mix their commercial messages with political propaganda designed to re-enforce support of the system.

[i] Through my personal experiences, I have found that drug treatment facilities, which many people are court ordered to attend (DUIs, drug arrests, etc.), try to get people to “change their thinking.” In some cases they are encouraged to be more law abiding and passive towards the system. Without a doubt many promote and encourage religion, usually Christian, but not exclusively. This is a great bonanza for our conservative Christian churches, which benefit when people have lost control of their lives to addiction and begin to rely on their religion for sobriety. See War on Drugs/ War on People, 1996.

Are Kansas Republicans trying to catch those porn peddling teachers?

From Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;

Once again the Republican Party is trying to protect our state’s children’s moral standers and clamping down on scrupulous pornography promoting teachers. They want to put these evil teachers in their place. Teach something in a way that offends one or more of the parents of students in a class room and these teachers are in deep doo doo.
The way the bill is written, it would appear that teachers providing pornography to minors is a major problem in the Kansas schools today.
The new law states;

“Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
Section 1. K.S.A. 2013 Supp. 21-6402 is hereby amended to read as
follows: 21-6402. (a) No person having custody, control or supervision
of any commercial or public establishment shall knowingly recklessly:
1.) That minors, as a part of the invited general public, will be exposed to view
such material or device;”

It goes on to list places and people who are affected by this new law. It also tells us all the types of media it covers, such as newspapers, film clips, photos or pamphlets. And what horrible things are we protecting our children from? This new bill spells it out:

"sadomasochistic abuse" means flagellation or torture by or upon (7)
a person clad in undergarments, in a mask or bizarre costume or in the
condition of being fettered, bound or otherwise physically restrained on
the part of one so clothed;
"sexual conduct" means acts of masturbation, homosexuality, (8)
sexual intercourse or physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed
genitals or pubic area or buttocks or with a human female's breast; and
"sexual excitement" means the condition of human male or female (9)
genitals when in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal. “

Wow! I didn’t realize our schools were just busting at the seams with all this pornography in the class room. It’s just got to be an epidemic. People are spending all their money and years of their lives in scholastic research so they can get into our schools and corrupt our youth with all these explicit porn images. So I decided to Google “Kansas, teachers, pornography” and I expected to find loads and loads of past articles about all these pornographic teachers in Kansas. I found very few cases, maybe one or two, of Kansas teachers distributing pornography.
So why would the astute leaders of our Kansas’ Legislative body want to attack this serious problem if it really didn’t really exist? Being puzzled I read on and the new bill went on to say;

the average adult person applying contemporary community “(B)
standards would find that the material or performance depicts or describes
nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse in a
manner that is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult
community with respect to what is suitable for minors; and
a reasonable person would find that the material or performance (C)
lacks serious literary, scientific, educational, artistic or political value for minors.”

So now I have to wonder if this is about more than pornography. Are there cases of teachers in trouble for breaching this part of the bill?...That is cases that fit“a reasonable person would find that the material or performance lacks serious literary, scientific, educational, artistic or political value for minors”

That last clause does not specify that it has to be sexual. It seems to imply there could be other things that a parent can object to. Then I remembered a story I read about David W. Guth, a tenured journalism professor on indefinite leave for a controversial tweet he posted in which he criticized the National Rifle Association (NRA). He was not in middle or high school. But he was censored for a tweet that criticized a cherished Republican organization. And this incident took place in the recent past.
Then I did another Google search and found teachers across the country under attack for presenting material that was not pornographic. An example is Michigan Substitute Teacher Jason Glicker, in trouble after a student filmed him discussing 9/11 Truth, MKultra, and other controversial topics in a classroom. He was in a lot of trouble for controversial films, but they were not pornographic.
So now I have to wonder if this is really about pornography at all. This bill could get a teacher in legal trouble as well as costing them their job and reputation. As an editorial in The Wichita Eagle pointed out;

“In addition to being insulting, the bill is written so broadly that many teachers might self-censor what they teach in order to protect themselves from potential prosecution. The Kansas National Education Association warned that the bill would “purge literature from our schools, censor art classes and stop field trips.”

So it would seem that our legislative leaders are actually trying to control the content of what a teacher can present to the class. There are stiff penalties for those who don’t go along. It always amazes me how much time our leaders spend telling us how bad it is in such countries as North Korea, because people there can’t speak freely. Then they try to imitate that kind of life right here in the US. How can this country criticize others for censorship when they keep trying to do it right here at home?

Root Boy Slim - I'm Not Too Old For You

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