Kansas GOP Insider (wannabe): March 2015

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Kansas Dems on life support


 The Pitch Weekly attempted to diagnose the Dem problems in its Washington Days coverage. I don't think the Washington Days Dem party was much fun this year. (Losing usually isn't.)

Dennis McKinney, Greensburg, turned down a nomination for party chair alluding to former party communications director Dakota Loomis calling rural Kansas towns, "crapholes." McKinney said the comments showed that the Democrats aren't connecting with the people of Kansas.

Understatement of the year. I read through the Pitch article, here, wondering if half of those Democrats had ever met anyone (outside of the Washington Days attendees) who actually lives in Kansas.

The article subtly theorizes that Kansas donkeys didn't "take firm stances that would resonate with constituencies." Like gay rights and what the people of Istanbul think of Kansas.

To be sure, those are issues, I guess, but those aren't issues that are going to draw masses of Kansans to the polls. Those just aren't things that keep most people -- and especially most Kansans -- awake at night.

I can't imagine how Dennis McKinney identifies with any Democrats these days. By all accounts, he is a Christian -- a real one -- not one of those guys toting a giant Bible who has never actually read a word of it. 



I suspect Dennis' brother, Don McKinney, is (gasp! if you're a Dem) pro-life, like majority of Americans and the vast majority of Kansans. 

Dennis McKinney admitted that his own daughter suggested they start praying during the Greensburg tornado. Your teenage children don't typically admonish their parents to pray, unless they were raised in a home or community where such things are the norm. He spoke of prayers and his pastor -- a real pastor, not a Jeremiah Wright type preaching of America's damnation -- in several interviews following the tornado.

And I wondered then, as I do now, how McKinney could possibly be a Democrat. My guess these days is that he's exceptionally loyal. That's a good thing, but today's Democratic Party can't resemble in any way the party Dennis originally signed up for. 

Remember when JFK said ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country? And he didn't mean -- what you can do for your country by paying more for those who will not work? This was a president who proposed slicing income tax rates and cutting the corporate tax rate. 

I imagine that's the party people like Dennis McKinney, and the few remaining Dems in western Kansas, signed up for. As opposed to this:


Or this:


But I am A-OK with Kansas Democrats thinking they're going to inspire generations of voters to the polls with a leftward push. The Republicans aren't doing the best job ever now that they are in control, but I know what a community dominated by years of liberal leadership looks like:


 



Dumb-Dumbs Run Amuck

False outrage is the name of the game when you're a Kansas teacher. 

At one point, I was keeping a list of all their grievances, and then I decided I should spend at least a tiny percent of my spare time doing something useful.

They're all angered up today because a Senate committee approved a bill that would disallow the practice of payroll deduction for union dues. Cue the flying monkeys.

The Kansas Legislature must be stopped, because they're trying to make it so union members have to WRITE THEIR OWN CHECKS TO PAY MEMBERSHIP DUES.

As a matter of principal, I pretty much hate all payroll deductions. It makes us all a little lazy about how our money is spent, who spends it, what it does for us. 

If the federal government goofed and went one full month without taking Social Security, Medicare, Income taxes etc., from everyone's paychecks, I am convinced the screaming to eliminate or reduce those programs would be intense. People don't realize how much money is absconded from their paychecks, and because they never miss what they're paying into the programs, they pay little attention how the money is used. 

Let's just call disallowing a payroll deduction a TEACHING MOMENT. 

I thought teachers loved teachable moments. Well, now you may get one. How awesome. 

The way the squawkers are billing the change is so laughable. The naysayers argue that the legislation is stripping "Kansas public employees of the right to control their own paychecks..." Um no. You can still send a check to the union. The legislation won't stop you. Send double if you want.

These dumb-dumbs screaming their bloody heads off are TEACHING your children. The message they're sending: We can't handle our own finances. We can't handle the responsibility of joining an organization and paying our dues without our employer (the state/slave master) doing it for us. 

Healthy message, teachers unions. Super reasonable.

A personal note

My largest fan called the other night and insisted I get back to this blog thing.

I'm am going to take the advice of my fan, because I started this thing and now I need to finish it.

But I warn you: I have been quiet lately, because sometimes the sucking noises from Topeka and Washington get to me. I mean, really, really get to me.

Mostly, I think the liberal vision for the future results in pure evil -- a dictatorship, gas chambers for political dissidents, motherless and fatherless children, and piles of the unwanted (aborted children, the disabled, the elderly) tossed in dumpsters. 

And I think most politicians of all stripes don't really give a damn as long as they get to be at the top of the pecking order. 

I'm jaded. Most people are too stupid to vote. (Yeah. I said that out loud. If you can't name at least one Supreme Court Justice, the Vice President, your Senators, your Congressman, your Mayor, a few members of your city council/commission, you don't need to rock the vote. You need to rock a newspaper.)

I have been intentionally burying my head in the media sand to retain my sanity, but I've decided to pull my head out and pay attention again. I am risking my own sanity, just so you all know, and there's already so little sanity floating around that I worry it may become extinct.

But my biggest fan asked for it, and so I am going to deliver.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Brownback's Harriet Myers

I really don't mean to pile on the Governor and the Republicans. That's one reason I've been strangely quiet on this blog lately. 

There's just so, so little coming out of Topeka (and even less from Washington) lately deserving of praise, or even commentary. The stuff with which I agree devolves into a public relations nightmare.

Someone PLEASE PLEASE let's have a talk about how the Governor's Office is handling communications with supporters. I give you this graphic:

Why yes, it appears to have been drawn on a napkin and then sent to the four corners of Kansas through a spam email.  It does show that the Kansas school finance formula is a disaster, but approximately seven people who open spam emails read it. (A few posted it on Facebook, where it was universally ignored. Good job, PR geniuses.)

Sorry, I know I've been hard on the Guv's recent public relations efforts. Brownback team, this is coming from a friendly place. I want you to suck less. 

But I digress: What I really wanted to talk about here is Brownback's nomination of Kathryn Gardner for Kansas State Court of Appeals. Long before the Wichita Eagle started writing hit pieces about whom the Governor overlooked in his nomination (here), I heard rumblings about how disappointed some Republicans were with the nomination.

Mostly, the concern, and I consider it very, very valid -- is that the bulk of Gardner's legal career has involved being a law clerk. (Which is better than my legal career, but still. The Governor isn't nominating me for a seat on a high court. So...) She has very few legal writings to give the general public any ideas of how she will adjudicate.

Now, I'd like to trust that Brownback knows this woman and nominated her because she's a brilliant legal mind. But I don't know that, and because of her lack of legal opinions, I can't make that leap.

Now, if I could be assured that the legislature and the executive branches are always going to be controlled by reasonable conservatives, I might be quasi-OK with nominees cloaked in darkness.

But we all know that at some point in the future, a slimy liberal will be elected as Governor and liberals may stake a claim to a few more seats in the legislature. And when they do, I don't want them to be able to nominate and seat some sketchy character without a paper trail just because, well, BROWNBACK DID IT TOO.

I am not saying Gardner is sketchy. She's probably super nice and likes puppies and babies and attends the Topeka Catholic Church. Oh wait, even Brownback, a Catholic, doesn't attend the Catholic Services -- not that it matters. She probably attends Topeka Bible Church as most Brownback appointments these days do. (I actually don't know whether Gardner does, but if I were a betting man, I'd put a few bucks on her being a regular guest at TBC.)

Seeking a Gubernatorial Appointment? I know a church you MAY be interested in attending. (And if you don't attend church, that's something you should be doing whether you're seeking a job or not.)