More publicity for Kansas' most racist politician- Kris Kobach

by Otto

Once again a non-deserving politician, Kris Kobach, got a lot of free publicity from The Wichita Eagle, "Kris Kobach, his views spark intense reactions – from supporters." However, they also printed an article about the difficulty of registering to vote and the thousands of people who's registration has been suspended, "Young voters, Wichitans top Kansas’ suspended voter list."

Not since the days of the civil rights movement has any politician tried so hard to keep people from voting, especially Hispanics. All the experts agree that the anti-voter/anti-fraud laws pushed by Kobach or designed to stop blacks and other minorities from voting. It also works against poor people.

The first article takes a look, mostly at his supporters of Kobach who are mostly white and older. There is little doubt this guy really depends on the angry white vote. His anti-immigrant credentials are well known across the nation. Almost any state that is trying to curb the rights of immigrants and restrict voting can be tied to Kobach's help. He barely has time to do his actual elected job as secretary of state.

That he has so much support in Kansas should surprise no one. Kansas use to be segregated and a major civil rights battle was actually fought in this state, right here in Wichita, the Dockum Drug Store sit-in. It's not surprising we still have racism here and it doesn't surprise me that racist can get a man elected, as they can with Kobach.

Now this man thinks he is governor material. If I have to chose between a very right-wing dumb ass and a very right-wing smart ass, Ill take the dumb one. Governor Sam Brownback is a dumb ass and most Kansans can tell. Still, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker followed almost the same economic strategies as Brownback, but he was able to win re-election with more than 50% of the vote. That he could seriously be considered for the president is disgusting. This is what happens with a smart ass.

The only place that Kobach belongs is in the dumpsters of history, along with racism and anti-immigration fear mongering. If he tries to run, we need a special effort to make sure he doesn't win.

In defense of Wichita’s only abortion clinic

I received this letter from Julie Burkhart and I am posting it here. -Otto

Julie A. Burkhart, Founder and CEO, Trust Women and South Wind Women's Center:  Each of us put our intentions and actions into the world everyday.  What we do has consequences and shapes the world around us. Our actions may be large or small, but they make a difference.  Even choosing to do nothing is an action in it's own way.  Some times our most profound actions, the ones that change the course of our lives or of someone else's life, come when we answer a call and say yes.  Dr. Tiller became an abortion provider because his father's patients asked him for help.  He became a later abortion provider because patients asked him for his help.   I know that each of you have answered a call at some point to join this movement. At Trust Women, we are all here because we said yes.  We opened South Wind Women's Center so that people who needed care would have a place they could turn to when they need it most. In most cases, we only know a few facts about our patients' lives. We know they need our help.  That's enough for us.  We know that whatever happens later in our patients' lives, this moment was one where they received help, one when they were able to ask for assistance and be told "yes, we can help you."   This is why we continue to work to provide the best care possible; why we fight each new restriction; why we speak out and share the truth about abortion.  Even when it's hard, even when our allies don't defend us, even when we're threatened. It's worth it. It's worth it to be able to say yes for once.  We all have the capacity to do what we know is right. We all have the ability to answer the call to help others even when it's hard or scary.  Even when it seems like our small actions won't change anything, they matter.  Your help, and your willingness to stand with us are what have allowed us to help over 4,700 patients since we opened.  Together, we are able to "say yes."

High Across The Prairie- "Memoirs Of A Drugged-Up, Sex Crazed Yippie" - Review

by Tim Pouncey

Kansas in the late 1970's was so different from today; the Sunflower State might as well have been located in Holland.

Remember what it was like to share drugs with close friends and complete strangers? Remember when casual sex was so casual you didn't even know your partners name? Remember when the political climate of Kansas came down squarely on the side of tolerance? Remember when your personal philosophy of life was defined by rock lyrics and not a mission statement?

You don't?

Well, Steve Otto does.

In his latest semi-fictional novel, Memoirs Of A Drugged-Up, Sex Crazed Yippie (Authorhouse Press/2005), Otto excavates 1970's counterculture like an archeologist loving dusting off a Mastodon tusk. In a brisk 349 pages, Otto gives us a lucid look at a Kansas few people remember --- or can't remember due to a plentiful supply of "controlled substances" that were constantly and cheaply available. Characters romp through Wichita, Lawrence and even Sedalia Missouri when a cheap thrill was worth what you paid for it and pleasure was just the flipside of danger.

But to dismiss this book as just another nostalgic stoner reminiscing about the last days of the counter-culture would be a major mistake. Although there is a certain "back-in-the-day" wistfulness about the time before political correctness was a mantra, Otto tempers his dreamy history lesson with brutal honesty.

The narrator of the story --- a composite of just about every old druggie you ever met --- may graphically describe the bliss of mainlining MDA, he also reminds us that brief moment of pleasure most often occurred in a squalid apartment at broken kitchen table next to sink full of dirty dishes.

Like all good storytellers, Otto takes the reader places they've never been before. Like William Burroughs and Charles Bukowsky, Otto sometimes takes you to places you've never really wanted to visit. Yet, Otto makes it worth the trip by including generous portions of political discourse, Cyrenaic philosophy, post-adolescent lust and near-suicidal thrill seeking to keep the narrative moving along like a junkie careening through a police roadblock.

Otto's work is always provocative and this book will undoubtedly draw the wrath of both solid conservatives and neo-feminists. Otto's characters never mask their contempt for the right-wing agenda and Otto's narrator never hides his obsession with female anatomy. However, criticizing Memoirs because it baits conservatives and objectifies women is missing the point. Filtering 1970's Kansas counterculture through the sensibilities of a naive middle-class, catholic school educated, twenty-something is no easy trick but Otto mostly pulls it off. He has a good ear for times-past and tries --- often successfully --- to make his prose read like it would have been written by someone experiencing these situations 30 years ago. Trying to be simultaneously innovative, entertaining and honest is a juggling act on a unicycle, but Otto is generally at his best when everything's up-in-the-air and he's peddling frantically. When the narrator's budding Marxist politics and his discussions with Iranian nationalists clash with his dawning awareness that Kansas politics has taken a sharp turn to the right, Otto makes it work.

Is Otto's look into the rear-view mirror a true reflection on the 70's, or do the objects simply appear bigger than they were? Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Memoirs resonates with characters buckling under the weight of the America Dream with redemption harder to find than next snort of Cocaine.

Memoirs costs $18.95 to $12.95 on sale can be found at these sites:

http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000353220/Memoirs-of-a-DruggedUp-SexCrazed-Yippie.aspx

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Drugged-Up-Sex-Crazed-Yippie-counter-culture/dp/1420821067/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351732172&sr=8-1&keywords=Memoirs+of+a+drugged-up+sex-crazed

Barns & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/memoirs-of-a-drugged-up-sex-crazed-yippie-steve-otto/1007193122?ean=9781420821062

Wichita still feeding off the teats of the Koch Brothers

Once again our local newspaper, The Wichita Eagle, has supported the two most dangerous people in the US today— Charles and David Koch. They have pursued a pro-business, anti-worker agenda. Worst of all they are destroying the democratic practices in this country by throwing $billions into our elections to buy off candidates and make them win.

These destructive people spend some of their $billions trying to win over the city by donating to building construction. But that is not without big benefits. Their name is now on a large number of buildings all across Wichita, a city that have locked up tight.

From The Wichita Eagle:

"The Kochs and the arts have a proud, long-running partnership in Wichita, in part because visual art was such a passion of the late Mary Koch. Now Liz and Charles Koch and the family foundations are giving $10.5 million in land and funding for a new home for the Wichita Center for the Arts, on a prime open site at 13th and Rock."

More.

In The New York Times article CARL HULSE calls Wichita "Kochville," and lists buildings that contain the Koch brother's names on them;

"...Not far away is the Koch Community Plaza and Koch Scouting Center. Then there is the Koch Orangutan and Chimpanzee Habitat at the robustly Koch-supported Sedgwick County Zoo. Stop off for swimming lessons at the Koch Aquatic Center at the North Branch Y.M.C.A., or a learning experience recognizing the ecological interests of Fred Koch and his wife, Mary, at the Great Plains Nature Center’s Koch Habitat Hall..."

And we could add the Koch Arena at Wichita State University where the Koch brothers have bought a lot of influence and can now get their rivals kicked off the university and they have.

Their contributions are made to make sure they get a positive public image, free advertising and they can made demands on any institution that may cross them. It's no different from prostitution— the money is good, but there is also the shame and degradation. When a billionaire has his name all over the city on buildings honoring him it becomes obvious that he is trying to buy up the town and own it. At leas we wish more people would see that. -Otto

Hulse's article tries to look at both sides in the Koch brothers buying up Wichita:

"In Wichita, Koch Influence Is Revered and Reviled"

WICHITA, Kan. — In national politics, playing in Charles Koch’s arena can mean saturation advertising against vulnerable Democrats, calls for tax cuts, demands to roll back government regulation and bitter clashes over climate change.

Here in the windswept hometown of the Koch family and Koch Industries, playing in Charles Koch Arena means something else entirely."

For the rest click here.

The New York Times article mentions the film "Koch Brothers Exposed:"

Scott Walker may be through- Good riddance!

By Otto

Yahoo News has noticed that GOP favorite Scott Walker got little notice at the recent debate. He didn’t get to say much:

“Indeed, according to data from Google Trends, the third- and fourth-most-asked questions about Walker at one point during the debate were, "What happened to Scott Walker?" and "Where is Scott Walker?" Walker was the least mentioned candidate on Twitter. He lagged behind most other candidates on Facebook as well.”

And as well as doing poor in a badly needed debate night, he may eventually lose his corporate funding he needs to make a serious run for president. And to that I say “It couldn’t happen to a better candidate.”

Of all the candidates Walker has got to be among the worst. He is squarely in the pockets of the Koch brothers. He has carried out the same kind of reforms we have seen in Kansas from Governor Sam Brownback. He has successfully “knee capped” (as the Koch brothers like to say) all the public unions. He has attacked teacher’s tenure, not unlike Brownback who in Kansas has stripped teachers of any due process if they are fired as a result of any complaint by parents. In Kansas teachers are leaving the state in droves. They are probably leaving Wisconsin as well. And as in Kansas, even though Walker has deeply offended most public workers, he was re-elected by sheepish Republican followers.

Today, in both states and elsewhere, the trend is to get rid of benefits, seniority, healthcare and a livable wage. They seem to want workers they can fire at anytime. They don’t want workers to get comfortable on the job nor earn more than a beginner’s salary. When the workers gets a little older and starts to wear out they are to be thrown to the street and easily replaced with younger more eager ones. What I don’t understand at all — is why any working person would vote for such people.

Walkers message is not all that different from others in the GOP. But each time a truly evil and despicable politician goes down 'an angle gets its wings' (at least in my imagination). Most of the GOP are corporate stooges out to make life miserable for workers and poor people. The good thing about Donald Trump is that he acts like a buffoon and yet the established suites of the GOP look even worse for having set him up to win the nomination.

To Walker I say "Good riddance" and I seriously hope we have heard the last from him and anyone like him. I hope he gets so discouraged he goes home with his tail between his legs and learns to STAY HOME. We don't want him.

Pix by www.politicususa.com

Britain’s Labor Party turns to a democratic socialist

There are some similarities between what is happening in the British Labor Party and the Bernie Sanders Campaign in the US. Of course there are differences between Bernie and Corbyn. Still I am posting this article for all to read. Maybe we started something in the US. -Otto

From Democracy and Class Struggle:

by Robert Clough

By the end of the campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party, it was no surprise, even for his most stubborn and malevolent critics, that Jeremy Corbyn would win the election. But the scale of his victory, 59.5% in the first round, was a resounding shock. Despite the dire warnings of a string of Labour Party pro-imperialist grandees, 49.6% of party members supported Corbyn, as did 83.8% of registered supporters and 57.6% of affiliated union voters. The Blairite and openly ruling class candidate Liz Kendall was utterly trounced, obtaining a miserable 4.5% of the vote. Together, the other two establishment, pro-austerity candidates, Yvette Cooper and the one-time favourite to win, Andy Burnham, shared 36%.

The reactions were immediate. Within hours, the Conservative Party was presenting Corbyn’s politics as a threat to national security. The ruling class was outraged. Eleven shadow front bench members resigned, refusing to work with Corbyn. Their passing will not be mourned: among their number were Liz Kendall, Yvette Cooper, the openly reactionary shadow Works and Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves, shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt and shadow business secretary Chuku Umunna, who had been a leadership candidate for 24 hours before passing the Blairite baton to Kendall. Good riddance to them. Most Labour MPs, an unprincipled bunch of frauds and self-serving careerists intent only on feathering their nests, were horrified at Corbyn’s success. 178 of them abstained in a parliamentary vote on the vicious benefit cuts announced in the July budget – they have only contempt for the plight of the poorest sections of the working class, despising them as scroungers and shirkers.

For the rest click here.

The myth of “individualism” in the economy

From Otto's War room:

The idea that we can choose to be "individualists" in our economy and we don't need collective thinking is part of the “free-market” capitalist, ideology. This ideology is a tool of the Republicans and conservatives, in and outside of this country, to co-opt or dupe workers into supporting their agenda. And that agenda is the pro-capitalist, pro-business and anti-worker policies we get today from the Republican Party. But why do workers support this? Do they really want to be fired at any time without any warnings? Do they really want to cut out all benefits from the work place including health care? Quite often we are told that conservative workers see themselves as individualist who opposes any kind of collectivism.

To put it clearly R.J. Saulnier said:

“What Republicans stand for derives from their adherence to individualism, the philosophy that perceives of the individual as a self-disciplined, basically self-reliant person who has rights and freedoms that it is the duty of government to respect and protect, who respects the rights and freedoms of others, and who feels an obligation to attend so far as possible to his/her own individual and family welfare. It is this embrace of individualism that sets Republicans apart from those who favor government that is big, centralized, intrusive, and increasingly paternalistic. What Republicans stand for is precisely the opposite–government that is limited, noninterventionist and decentralized.”

When he said “self-reliant person” what does that really mean? Do they make their own clothes? Do they build their own cars from scratch? Do they grow their own food? Chances are they consume products every day that requires a work force to make. Even a small business person has to acknowledge that. Each business creates a piece of the economy and the only people in the country who don’t buy and consume those goods are the hermits that live off in caves and never see another human being. But that’s not what we have here in Kansas or anywhere else.

There is little doubt that by “self-disciplined” Saulnier does not mean the people on welfare or other government assistance. The American worker has learned to hate those people as un-disciplined people who they believe are just lazy and lacking in moral character. Some Republicans have a tendency to insult supporters of the Democratic Party by insisting they are all on government assistance waiting for handouts.

Most people on assistance have paid some taxes at one time or another. Most have worked at least some time in their lives. Many people on assistance, such as food stamps, are working and they are earning minimum wage. Few people are on assistance their whole lives, especially with all the new rules both national and state-wide, that place limits on welfare.

Welfare recipients and those on assistance also spend money which gives back to the government in the form of sales tax and they add to the economy. Working people have to make the products that those on assistance buy. Without consumers such work provides products which can’t be purchased.

In this way we are all interconnected. Most Republican workers will accept un-employment if they are fired or laid off.  In this modern economy few “individualist” conservative workers can afford not to take unemployment.

What this all means is that economic “individualism” is just a myth. Perhaps a person can be an individualist in arts or culture but not economically. Anyone has the right to be responsible for him/her self, but that does not have anything to do with economic individualism. We are all dependent on those who provide the things we buy with our money. If we are sick we go to a doctor. Trying to cure yourself because of your individualism is foolish and can lead to death. Almost no one can really claim to be completely free of anyone else’s help. We need others to survive and that is fact. Whether we always work or whether we get our income another way, we all depend on each other.

It is time to expose the “individualism” myth.

Pix by www.dailykos.com.

Don’t miss “I Am Pol Pot” for fall reading

This is a good time to buy books for fall reading and “I Am Pol Pot,” by Steve Otto. It is the best way to learn of the Indo-China war, of the 1960s and 1970s, especially the rise of the Khmer Rouge (actually called the Communist Party of Kampuchea before and during the Pol Pot years and Democratic Kampuchea after they were driven out of Cambodia in the late 1970s).

 This book provides an inside look at the regime. Pol Pot is recreated using real CPK documents. This is a chance to see what really happened inside that government and how it was actually perceived by those leading it. This is also a look at the turmoil of Indo-China and the liberation movements. The rise of the Khmer Rouge actually came before the fall of Vietnam.

It is available in both print and e-books.

From Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Am-Pol-Pot-Steve-Otto/dp/0557039657/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351732306&sr=1-1&keywords=I+am+Pol+Pot , $17.14.

From I-Tunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/i-am-pol-pot/id455263219?mt=11 , $8.99.

Barns & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/i-am-pol-pot-steve-otto/1112481913?ean=9781257406869

An update from Bernie Sanders

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Back when I was in the U.S. House, I was the first member of Congress to take constituents across the border to Canada to highlight the huge disparity between the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. and other nations.

On that first trip were a number of women struggling with breast cancer.

I will never forget the tears in the eyes of women who were able to buy the breast cancer drug tamoxifen in Canada at one tenth of the price they were paying for that drug in the U.S.

In 2014, the pharmaceutical industry spent over $250 million on lobbying and campaign contributions -- far more than any other industry in America. This grotesque spending results in Americans paying more money for medication than anyone else in the world.

The time has come to say very loudly and very clearly that enough is enough.The greed of the pharmaceutical industry is killing Americans. It has got to stop.

Last year, 35 million Americans could not get their prescriptions filled because they could not afford it.

People should not have to go without the medication they need just because their elected officials aren’t willing to challenge the drug and health care industry lobby. Yet that is exactly what is happening.

I have a plan to change this. Last week I introduced a bill in the Senate — and when I am president, I will work to make it law — that will stop the soaring costs of prescription drug prices.

Add your name to support my plan to reduce drug prices and send a message to Congress and the prescription drug lobbyists that Americans should not die because they can't afford drugs. Click here to support my plan.

My plan to reduce prescription drug prices is based around getting a better deal for the American people, and keeping drug companies in check over outrageous and unfair practices.

Medicare should negotiate lower drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. Due to a provision in law written by the pharmaceutical industry, Medicare is banned from using its purchasing power to lower prescription drug prices. My plan will empower Medicare to negotiate lower costs for our seniors, and save us all money.

Americans should be able to import drugs from Canada and other well-regulated countries. Individuals, pharmacists, and wholesalers should be able to import prescription drugs from licensed Canadian pharmacies. Americans pay 40% more per person than Canadians for prescription drugs. Anyone in our country should be able to take advantage of those savings for medications they need.

We need better transparency around drug costs. Right now, the pharmaceutical industry can arbitrarily set prices for drugs, and the public has very little insight into why certain drugs cost what they do — even though some of the research costs are often funded with U.S. taxpayer dollars. I believe that drug companies should tell us about how much drugs cost to research and develop, how much taxpayer money went towards those costs, what drugs actually cost in the United States, and how much they cost in other countries.

Generic drugs should be widely available, and drug companies shouldn't be able to pay off competitors to keep cheaper drugs off the market.Brand-name drugs cost, on average, 10 times as much as generics. Right now, it is a common practice for big drug companies to pay their competitors to restrict generic drugs from the public. We need to ban this practice, and make cheaper drugs readily available.

Drug companies that break the law should face severe penalties. If any drug company is convicted of criminal or civil fraud, they should face severe penalties including the prospect of losing their government-granted monopoly on a drug. Over the last decade, most major-branded drug makers have either settled or been convicted of fraud for violations including off-label promotion, kickbacks, anti-monopoly practices, and Medicare fraud. It's time to step up the penalties for breaking the law.

What good is it to live in the richest country on earth, if so many of our people cannot afford medications that could save their lives?

The American people are sick and tired of paying the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world. The skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs are an example of the greed of the pharmaceutical companies that has got to stop.

Now, I believe that the true solution is a national health care system that puts people ahead of profits and health ahead of special interests, and I will soon introduce legislation to provide a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system to provide health care for all Americans.

But we must also address these outrageous costs of prescription drugs, and my plan that I outlined here will do that.

Say you want to take on the prescription drug companies by adding your name to support my plan. Click here to take action now.

Thank you for all you do.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

It's 9/11 or "Patriot Day" today as Prez. Obama declairedd

Today is "Patriot Day." That is the new name that Prez. Barack Obama came up with for this day, in 2009. That doesn't mean a lot has really changed. It comes with the usual flying half mast flags and moments of silence. Since the actual event the country has cooled off and half-way come to its senses. I sometimes work in schools and I'm starting to notice that middle school students don't find as much importance to this since they were born before it happened. We still have some troops in Afghanistan, even though that war is supposed to be over.

This was written for Otto's War Room, in 2009 for 9/11 (as it was known as that year):

"After the planes hit the twin towers of New York, on September 11, 2001, the country went through, shock, grief and then a negative reaction. Fascist politicians of all types came out from under their rocks to promote the worst America has to offer politically and militarily. We still fight an imperialist war in Afghanistan, despite continued losses of American lives (Not to mention the large number of Afghanistan dead.)
The obvious response to the Government response was to attack the fascist nature of our government’s reaction."

We did loose a lot of American lives that day. It was a tragedy.

New Docs Expose Charles Koch's Ties to the John Birch Society

Woody Guthrie- Union songs...

Today is fake Labor Day...that holiday the came up with to lure workers away from the real Labor Day on May 1. Here are some fun union songs to sing today. -Otto

You Gotta Go Down And Join The Union

Woody Guthrie - Union Burying Ground

 

Peruvians protest against the "invasion" of US marines

As with Colombia the US is interfering in the internal affairs of a foreign country, Peru. The government there has welcome the interference so they can use the US troops to help squash a rebellion and decent.

The Peruvian Government has been battling the Shining Path guerrillas (Communist Party of Peru) for the last 30 years. But they are also trying to squash other similar political groups, such as movadef, which has tried to form a legal political party and the Peruvian Government has prevented that.

The Peruvian Government has recently tried to pass a 'Terrorism Denial' law that prevents frees speech when discussing the past civil war with the Shining Path. The US should not be involved in the internal affairs of other countries.

This is continuing the policy of imperialism and we need to oppose it. There is little difference between this and the invasion of Iraq. - Otto

From Cuestionatelotodo:

Translated with the help of Google;

Posted by Jose Luis Forneo

Peruvians have taken to the streets in Lima on Tuesday to "welcome" the thugs of the US aircraft carrier USS George Washington, with its 3,200 troops which will kick off a new "military invasion" ..

It is a 'sting operation', carried out with the consent of the Peruvian government, intended to consolidate the US presence not only in Peru but in Latin America, in circumstances in which the (US) Empire seeks to change the correlation of prevailing forces in the region.

The aircraft carrier George Washington arrives at the port of Callao in the context of a bilateral military cooperation agreement that the Congress of Peru ratified in late January, when it authorized the entry and stay of US troops in Peruvian territory.

Thus, from February to Peru they have entered more than one hundred US military, many of them for a stay of one year.

Under the agreement, the US military trains the Armed Forces of Peru in combating armed groups and drug traffickers operating in the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers, as reported in February an article Defensa.com portal.

On August 21 last, activists of political and social organizations were also demonstrated in the streets of Lima to protest a military presence they consider detrimental to the sovereignty and security of Peru.

According to the notice of the Collective Dignity for Tuesday, Peru is the "only" country in the region in which nine US military bases operate, while three of its ports are used to resupply the US Fourth Fleet. The Fourth Fleet's main objective maritime military control in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

This is yet another example of collaboration of political traitors in this case Humala, with yankee imperialism, against the opinion of their own people. The new American "invasion", in this case allowed by the authorities, aims to boost military presence in South America to the steady decline of US influence in the area in recent years. Based in Peru, as happens in Colombia, the Marines can organize and support terrorist groups and coup in economic interests of American multinationals and strategic US government.

Interestingly, one of the excuses used to this kind of "consensual invasions" is to combat drug trafficking, the US being the largest consumer of cocaine in the world and the country where mafias (illegal or legal) economically perform more production, distribution and consumption.

Pix by www.mrfood.com.

Columnist Merritt exposes Commissioner Richard Ranzau as a complete ass hole

by Otto

By now, those of us who live in Sedgwick County realize that Sedgwick County Commissioner Richard Ranzau’s is a destructive jerk. He is a knot-head and a far-right dogmatist that believes that government is only there to protect the property rights of him and his friends. 

Ranzau, and his cronies in the commission, have made destructive cuts in public spending, such as the Zoo, Wichita Arts Council and public health. 

And we can thank Davis Merritt, who's columns get carried in The Wichita Eagle, for exposing this creep.

Merritt let us know that, although Ranzau has acted as if there was a budget crisis going on in Sedgwick when confronted by local voters, he had a totally different reason for all these county cuts when he spoke, last week,  to the conservative "choir" at a Wichita Pachyderm Club meeting.

 

“We can give you a rationale for every decision that we made, and I have to say the vast majority of them should be made regardless of whether or not we had a budget deficit.....”

 “We’re trying to restore core American values to Sedgwick County,” he said.'

He also tried to claim, once again, that the "the county … has moved so far left that we don’t even recognize core American values.”

This last statement is ridiculous. This county has NEVER gone to the left. What HAS happened is that people as Ranzau and his chums have moved far to the right and now blames all their problems on the mythical Kansas left the really never existed.

This is a great example of what can happen when a politician talks out of both sides of his mouth in two deferent places at about the same time. He gets exposed as the shyster he is.

Merritt does a good job of exposing the stupidity of Ranzau and is "property rights only" philosophy. Merritt explains that the purpose of government:

"The preamble to the U.S. Constitution does an admirable job of explaining why “the government exists,” to use Ranzau’s formulation: “in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.…”

And as we can very clearly see, Ranzau's political ideology falls WAY short of any of that. Merritt further states that voters should feel remorse for ever having put this idiot in office at all.

So thank you Davis Merritt for exposing this two-faced ass hole for the two-bit shyster he really is.

Major jack ass...

Pix by ksn.com.