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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Lonesome Cowboy Burt

Frank Zappa-Mothers

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.

Kansas’ Kris Kobach can’t defend his voter ID law

From Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;

It was about a week ago that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach wrote an opinion piece in The Wichita Eagle defending his voter ID law. Kobach has made a career promoting that law, not only in Kansas but elsewhere.
That new law is probably the most racist and xenophobic action taken in Kansas since the Ku Klux Klan had influence here. Members of the organization KanVote have accused Kobach of trying to stop minorities, poor people and immigrants from voting.
In Kobach’s own words to The Wichita Eagle:

“Because of the Secure and Fair Elections Act of 2011, Kansas now leads the way in securing the integrity of elections. Our photo-ID and proof-of-citizenship rules make election fraud extremely difficult.”

Not only is voting fraud harder to get away with, but a lot of eligible voters are also having a hard time getting to vote. The ACLU has charged that the new law hasprevented 18,000 voters in Kansas from voting in local contests even though they can vote in federal elections. The documents needed for proof of citizenship in state or local elections are not needed for federal contests. That has lead to a two tier system.
The ACLU is not the only organizations to charge that more than 10,000 people who were able to vote before the new law can no longer vote today.
How much voter fraud has this new law prevented? Before the law, Kobach often agreed in public forums that there were about 20 confirmed cases of fraud the years before he passed this law. In 2006 U.S. Attorney spokesman Jim Crosssaid their office received 10 to 20 voting-related complaints.
Kobach pointed out in his article that other states have adopted Kansas’ anti-fraud law:

“Other states, such as Alabama and Pennsylvania, have since adopted parts of the Kansas model.”

This is because Kobach has spent a lot of his time traveling to other states to promote his anti-voting law. That means he has spent less time doing the job he was elected to do.
Another state that adopted such laws was Arizona. On June 17th, 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down voter registration requirements in Arizona that were essentially identical to those in Kansas. The organization KanVote is pushing for Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt to strike down Kobach’s law here in this state.
And Still Kobach has defended his law despite the Supreme Court decision:

“First, the (Wichita Eagle) editorial board incorrectly claimed that the Supreme Court invalidated Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship requirement. On the contrary, the court reaffirmed Arizona’s right to require proof of citizenship from registering voters. The court held that every state has the sovereign authority to establish and enforce voter qualifications, such as by proving citizenship. The court merely stated that under federal law, Arizona must accept both the state voter-registration form and the federal registration form, even though the federal form as currently written does not require proof of citizenship.”

He does acknowledge that he has to defend this law in the courts and assures us that he will not have to use our taxes to do it:

“Furthermore, my office is litigating this suit without spending significant taxpayer dollars. We are not hiring any outside counsel to do the work. Instead, I and the attorneys on my staff are arguing the case ourselves”

Kobach fails to mention that he is employed by the taxpayers and any time he and his staff spend on defending these laws are a waist of the taxpayer’s money.
The bottom line is that his voter ID law prevents voting for a lot of people. His arguments of fraud are absurd. The only logical explanation for this law is to prevent minorities, poor people and immigrants from voting and these just happen to be people who don’t ordinarily vote for Republicans. .