Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Spector the defector

This seems like mostly self-interest on Spector's part, but it does underscore GOP problem of keeping moderates in the party and the hardening, shrinking of the Party.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Another Ten Commandments Controversy

When will good folks of Christian faith come to understand that this country was founded by people who were mostly Christian (not all of em) but is not a Christian Nation, in the sense that government does not follow any specific religious doctrine or text?


Senate votes for 10 Commandments monument
RON JENKINS
Associated Press Writer


OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Senate voted overwhelmingly Monday to allow a Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds after heated debate over good and evil and political expediency.

Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso, said his bill merely tried to recognize the Ten Commandments as a historical document that formed the basis for the country's laws.

"It's like the Liberty Bell," Brogdon said.

Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre, however, charged that the measure was a political ploy aimed at getting Brogdon elected governor, playing to "uneducated people" who "do not understand anything other than wedge issues like this.

"If it's not God, if it's not gays, if it's not guns, they don't care," she said.

After Senate Democratic leader Charlie Laster spoke to McIntyre, she said: "I apologize, Sen. Brogdon, for calling your name. But I still say this is a bad bill and the intent is very, very mean."

She said it put the state's "backward thinking" on display for the rest of the country.

Brogdon, who officially announced his candidacy for governor at the state GOP convention on Saturday, said he did not know how to respond to the allegations of McIntyre, D-Tulsa, and Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Oklahoma City.

Johnson said she found the intent of the bill "very offensive" and "hypocritical." She said she had not been able to get a hearing on a proposed monument honoring blacks' contribution to the state's political history.

Brogdon said McIntyre knows he is not a hypocrite and expressed dismay he had been referred to as having "mean" and "evil" intent.

He later said he was "tired of being called a racist on the Senate floor," accusing McIntyre and Johnson, who are black, of "hysteria" and interjecting race into the arguments over the bill.

"We're talking about the Ten Commandments, for crying out loud, and they brought up race. That's quite a stretch," he said.

McIntyre and Johnson said Barack Obama, the country's first black president, has been held up to ridicule in Oklahoma through legislative resolutions and politically inspired demonstrations.

"If we're not careful, we'll have another civil war," McIntyre said.

Sen. Jim Wilson, D-Tahlequah, said the law is "obviously unconstitutional," despite arguments the Supreme Court has upheld a similar Texas law. Wilson said "the facts are much different" in Texas, where the Ten Commandments was located in a monument park for four decades.

Sen. Tom Adelson, D-Tulsa, voted against the bill, saying it violated the Oklahoma Constitution.

Adelson said that as a Jewish person, he is offended by efforts to "secularize" the Ten Commandments.

"It is clearly a religious symbol; I would not have it referred to any other way," he said.

Sen. Bill Brown, R-Broken Arrow, said the Ten Commandments all involve moral issues that can guide the nation, apart from any religious aspect.

"I think our country can stand and live on moral issues," he said.

The bill must return to the House and Brogdon indicated it would go to a joint conference committee.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Obama poll wackiness

Alright, whose trying to skew the poll by notifying email lists? We've never had close to 1,000 votes in less than 48 hours.

How do you think President Obama has done in his first three months? [1111 votes total]

Great (48) 4%
Good (56) 5%
So-so (53) 5%
Terrible (954) 86%

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Endorsements

Dottie Smith told me the other day she thought a newspaper endorsing candidates for local office was wrong. That the local paper should stay neutral and that endorsements are unfair. She thinks perhaps people just see the endorsement and so "I'll go with it."

I defended the endorsements as something most papers do based on an attempt to help others form opinions and influence events in their community. I also said I've been told some people don't want the Traveler endorsement because they think it will hurt them
:)

What do you all think?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Adios amigo cartoon

We've taken a little heat for this political cartoon. Inappropriate?

Tea party post mordem

Is this tea party protest thing going to last or just a fringe element with a general aversion for government

Gun safety

Is this story a case of careless kids or a general cavalier attitude toward guns?

Friday, April 10, 2009

Classy

Check out Scott Margolius's ad in Thursday's Traveler if you haven't already. He congratulates the winners and thanks his supports and is overall very gracious in what was a pretty contention campaign, for local standards.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Another change election

The last three Ark City Commission elections have been change elections. Incumbents have lost in all three of them. These are unsettled, active times in the city between the rivers.

Don't see how you can see this election as anything other than a rebuke of current commission majority, most notably Mell Kuhn, whose brash, sometimes crude style alienates some people.

Tiahrt for Senate

Tiahrt Files to have Name Placed on 2010 Ballot as Official US Senate Candidate

WICHITA-U.S. Congressman Todd Tiahrt (R-Goddard) today took the third and final step in making his candidacy for the United States Senate official by filing with the Kansas Secretary of State to have his name placed on the ballot in 2010. Tiahrt announced his candidacy in front of hundreds of Republicans gathered in Topeka in late January. In early February Tiahrt filed official papers with the Federal Election Commission through the Secretary of the Senate. Thursday's filing is the final step in officially getting Tiahrt's name placed on the Kansas ballot in 2010.

Tiahrt filed his paperwork at the Sedgwick County Courthouse and was joined by his wife Vicki and a group of more than 20 supporters wearing red Tiahrt campaign shirts. Tiahrt said his travels across the state meeting with Kansans in recent months has been encouraging and has given him a new excitement to take his vision to the U.S. Senate.

"It has been an honor traveling our great state meeting with Kansans who want conservative leadership they can trust," said Tiahrt. "Today's filing will place my name on the 2010 ballot as a Senate candidate, and I am excited about meeting with more Kansans in the coming months to share my vision for how we can renew the dream for a more prosperous future.

"I hear from Kansans every day who support my campaign because we need leaders who have courage to take common-sense conservative principles to Washington . We need bold leadership to counter the liberal agenda of a Democrat-controlled White House and Congress. With the growing support of Kansas voters, I will fight to make sure our state has another strong voice in the United States Senate."

Tiahrt is the Dean of the Kansas House Congressional Delegation and has served in the House of Representatives since 1995.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Kasha and health care

Here's Traveler editorial that ran last Saturday.

KELLEY OUT OF TOUCH ON HEALTH CARE

Kasha Kelley is way off base when it comes to health insurance for children.
In the House budget committee, she worked against expanding government-assisted health insurance for children, known as SCHIP.
SCHIP is funded mostly by the federal government with a small match from states.
Thankfully the full House put the measure into the budget it approved this week. Hopefully the Senate will follow and Kansas can reach another 8,000 or so children of working families.
Expanding SCHIP would cover children of families making 250 percent of federal poverty levels.
According to the Hawver Capitol Report, Kelley said a family of four earning $55,000 a year could tithe to a church and still afford private health insurance.
This view is out of touch with the struggles of working families, many of whom live in fear of going to the hospital.
Private health insurance costs have sped way past income gains in recent year.
That family of four can easily spend $10,000 a year on out-of-pocket costs if they purchase private insurance.
Businesses large and small are pushing more and more of their health insurance costs to workers because of the soaring costs.
This is one area that demands government action.
The least we can do is aid in the health care of children from families of modest means.

Cancer cluster?

Kanyon Gingher with KACY has asked city commission candidates about whether they think there's a high rate of cancer in Ark City? I've heard this rumor before but never seen any evidence. I think it arose after a few publicized cases of cancer in children occurred in a short amount of time. If anybody knows where she's coming from and what might be driving this rumor, let us know....

Also, her questions about whether Ark City should have a strong mayor and rotating city attorney are interesting, although don't think those changes are under any serious consideration. Strong mayor would be like New York city, where a Mayor sets the agenda and has control over administration. I guess you could elect a Mayor without those powers, but then it would be similar to mayor now. I'm guessing Mell already thinks he's a strong mayor :)