Municipal mayhem

OK, that's a huge overstatement, but I liked the iliteration. But it's hard not to try to connect dots here. Esp. after Randy Leach, a fire dept employee and the chief for six years, mysteriously resigns and gets no kudos from his supervisors or the commissioners. In fact city officials wont even say whether he was terminated or resigned. There's employee confidentially, but there's also interest in informing your bosses - the taxpayers - of what's going on. Right now it tilts too far in favor of secrecy because people are afraid of lawsuits. But that secrecy breeds distrust, and I don't think govt. bodies HAVE to keep everything so quiet. They can inform the public about certain personnel issues if they feel there is an overriding interest to do so.

Anyway, Leach's departure occurs just after another dept. head, Gary Baugher, resigns with no fanfare, and while the city is undergoing an operational audit to see where costs could be saved and efficiencies found. AND, the city commission has been in lots of closed sessions to talk about personnel. You also have to throw in the commission's frustration at city staff for the confusing information about water billing payments and the questionable sales effort to purchase a new computer system, which made upper management look pretty bad.

To the average person is seems like wholesale changes are afoot, but nobody's saying so. I would encourage elected officials to be more forthcoming about the overall strategy and goals here. If there isn't an overall strategy, and these things are all separate incidents, which is possible, then somebody should write a letter to the editor or make more public statements about it. Because right now it appears that sweeping efforts to change personnel and organization is afoot. If that's the case, then citizens need to know WHY? Not knowing what's going on leads to rumors, mistrust, and a disconnect between the city and it's citizens, which is already a large problem, esp. in Ark City.

Perception vs. reality

This is an interesting lesson in perception versus reality. Conservative Fox and radio commentator Sean Hannity lists Kathleen Sebelius as one of the "radicals" working for Obama. She's the Health and Human Services Secretary.

Huh?

You don't get elected Gov. in Kansas as a Democrat, twice, being radical. Hannity says her record on abortion makes her a radical. But with folks like Hannity, if you don't share their puritan views, you are labeled and categorized and reason and truth aren't relevant.

Green shoots

A nice bit of local economic news. And who new Volvo made plan parts?

Ah the days when manufacturers couldn't find enough local workers to keep up with the work. That was only a couple years ago, but seems like a lifetime.

The conservative elements of health reform

My editorial in Sat. paper pointing out that "obamacare" contains conservative principals and isn't anything like the govt. take over of health insurance like some conservatives claim, and like most liberals wanted.

And thankgoodness we have an attorney general who's not caught up in trying to score political points and waste taxpayer money on fighting the new law. If the fed. govt. can make me pay taxes and pay into Medicare, Social Security, it can make me buy health insurance. In fact, mandating health insurance was part of the GOP proposals in the past. But because the Democrats embraced it, now the political opposition calls it unconstitutional.

Tea party in Cowley County?

We haven't seen any organized Tea Party effort in Cowley County and really don't know of anybody who is active in the tea party cause. Of course there are many people who align with the general tea party agenda - anger at government control, taxes and spending.

The point made that the party leadership of the Kansas GOP is pretty much tea party before tea party was cool, makes sense. The Kansas and local Republican Party establishment is pretty absolutist on less government, lower taxes, etc.

One difference might be the social conservatism of the Kansas and local GOP, which doesn't necessarily jibe with the Tea Party movement. It seems more libertarian in general. And the tea party activists seem to be people not attached to traditional parties but who rose up after the govt. failures to stop the recession and now govt. expansion under Obama. Although I still maintain that much of the anger stems from generalized fear about the economy and cultural fear that somebody not like them is in charge. That fear is misplaced onto things like health care reform and stimulus spending. If this is wrong, then we would have seen tea parties during the run-away deficits the GOP caused during the Bush years - in fairly good economic times.

Health care hyperventalition

It's amazing to me the mental and emotional twists some opponents of health care reform get themselves into: Here's an anonymous reader comment:



Well since your so happy! How do you feel about supporting ABORTION with your tax dollars and healtcare payments! (Nevermind Obama's E.O. it as worthless as his campaign promises!)
Thats OK you'll get yours in the end! When they decide your not worth spending any more money on to keep you going - in your old age! (maybe even before).
Its going to be so nice when we get to the point that "life" is all about money - who has it and who doesn't - and the Government makes those decisions - even worse then it is today!
Then about all that debt we Owe?
With that very real potential for Hyper-Inflation?
Simply doesn't matter - we'll just file bankruptcy and walk away!
The problem with Liberals like you - It always feels GOOD until it HURTS! Then its usually too late!

Somewhere the narrative that the federal government is trying to control, nay, end peoples lives crept into this debate and stuck on the hardcore right. And since I support the reform, I will be punished by early death. Ouch.

What planet ...

Spending hypocracy

is worth reading. If conservatives screaming about over spending right now, such as Todd Tiahrt, had done so when the GOP controlled Washington, when they supported medicare drug entitlement expansion and wars budgets that were not paid for, their message would have more credibility. And now we see that, at least in the case of office spending, he doesn't walk the talk, and as a pretty lame excuse for it.

Here's a really interesting article that interviewed Tiarht. He admits to being a tea-partier and really lays into Moran. It's over a month old but very revealing. Tiahrt sounds desperate and for some reason, apparently, thinks Kansas is ground zero for the radical right, when if fact Kansas is more of a practical, conservative-leaning place where some hard cores break through on occasion - Phil Kline, for instance.

Let's home Tiahrt does become one of them.