tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76085117448011620092024-03-13T21:54:24.449-05:00Ideas, Observations, & Mental MachinationsWelcome to a place where ideas are looked at from a fresh perspective. There is a large focus on politics, mostly from a Progressive Perspective, often tempered with the Constitution, and trying to avoid the extremes of the right and the left. My hope is to avoid the echo chambers. Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.comBlogger266125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-42018485283553369802017-01-04T16:25:00.000-06:002017-01-04T16:25:05.130-06:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Gone to Die?</div>
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The first session of the 115<sup>th</sup> Congress is
begun. Bills are filling the hopper of
the Clerk of the House so quickly that <a href="http://congress.gov/">congress.gov</a> cannot get the text of them
published because of a backlog at the Government Printing House, (GPO). This issue will not be problematic for long. </div>
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Bills often die in committee. I am suggesting that most, if not all, of the
following bills will suffer that fate.
Of course the Representative filing the bill still has fodder for the
campaign trail. Sometimes these bills
are a shell game. </div>
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In the Age of Trump; Fascism in America, there will no doubt
be a strong need for Whistleblowers and enhanced Whistleblower
Protections. So it appears the list
begins with reintroduction of a bill from the last Congress. This time it is called H.R. 69: “To
reauthorize the Office of Special Counsel, to amend title 5, United States
Code, to provide modifications to authorities relating to the Office of Special
Counsel, and for other purposes”. The short title is "Thoroughly Investigating Retaliation Against Whistleblowers
Act"</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the
114<sup>th</sup> Congress the bill was numbered H.R. 4639 introduced by Rep.
Rod Blum [R-IA-1] and cosponsored by Rep. Mark Meadows [R-NC-11], Rep. Gerald
E. Connolly [D-VA-11], and Rep Elijah Cummings
[D-MD-7].</div>
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Detailed information
about the bill as filed in the 114<sup>th</sup> Congress is available at: <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/4639">https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/4639</a>.</div>
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When this bill is published we can compare the new version with the old. </div>
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On a less happy note I offer you Representative Darrell E.
Issa [R-CA-49] and his reintroduction of the Midnight Rules Relief Act. This
year it is H.R. 21. Last year it was H.R. 5982.
It appears that Issa thinks the Congress has too much work to do. Too
much in fact to take any decent amount of time to consider the work it is does. After all in 2016 Congress met for 111
days. That’s great part time work for
the millionaires in power. </div>
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Anyway, when the Congress takes up dreaded
federal regulations it takes too much time to reject them one at a time. Issa wants to reject them speedily (so Republicans
can say “Yes that was a good Regulation. Unfortunately you have to keep all
those bad regulations to keep the one you like Mr. Ms. or Mrs. Constituent.” At least in the last year of a President’s
term. </div>
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When this bill gets out of the GPO it will appear on line
and get a proper review. </div>
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Make a note H.R. 5982 received five Roll Call votes and passed
the House on Roll number 585 on November 17<sup>th</sup> 2016. It did not in survive the Senate. Read more about the former version at: <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/5982">https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/5982</a></div>
<br />Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-8414551094006876722014-10-31T08:52:00.001-05:002014-10-31T08:56:46.529-05:00GOOGLE FIBER SAYS NO TO LEAWOOD, KS [or why egalitarianism bites the 1%]<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Google Fiber came first to Kansas
City, Kansas and then to Kansas City, Missouri with the egalitarian promise of
leveling the playing field by bridging the digital divide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now the service is becoming available to Metro
suburbs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today Google Fiber announced
that it is indeed egalitarian because it has told Leawood, Kansas they can't
have their service.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Leawood, especially the new
Leawood south of Interstate 435 is the enclave of the 1%, or as my generation
called them Yuppie scum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have used
zoning laws to position themselves as a fortress keeping the riffraff
away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently a favorite grocery store
of these wealthy spoiled citizens told them they were leaving town because the
city was inflexible in using tax money to assist in the refurbishment of their
store. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Leawood's affinity for zoning
itself into oblivion struck again in Google Fiber's <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>decision to bypass this golden ghetto.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It simply costs too much money for Google to
develop the infrastructure to serve Leawood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Oh their homes are big, and spread apart, the lot sizes tend to be
described as estates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bottom line
calculation for installing the impressive infrastructure for Google Fiber must
go something like "x number of houses to the block, y number of blocks to the city
= n number of potential customers".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then
you'd figure out how many customers you'd likely obtain and there is a break
even figure in that math.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leawood
doesn't have enough customers to justify the cost of building the network in
their city.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Plus there is the problem with
digging ditches in the pristine lawns of Leawood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You know that those people won't be satisfied
with the trench being refilled and grass seed being spread and watered once or
twice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor would placing a coat of
excelsior over the disturbed area suffice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No, in Leawood Google Fiber would have to hire George Toma, or at least
a golf course grass guru, to assure the continuity and beauty of the lawns
of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leawood.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
So the whiny little rich kids
will have to play their bleeding edge, high tech, and mind numbing electronic
games on the back alleys of the internet highway system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they're parents need to wheel and deal on
global markets they can rent office space in Kansas City, Missouri or Kansas;
but they can't have it at home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the
serious students will have to do their learning the old fashioned way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They'll fall behind, but that tends to happens when
the poorest become a little more equal in obtaining access to education with the richest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When the average is raised in the arena of opportunity some win and some
lose. The kids of the two Kansas Cities win this round.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-81114232300256229972013-10-09T09:36:00.000-05:002013-10-09T10:08:33.731-05:00KANSAS v. CHEEVER, feathering the reach of the Fifth Amendment<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Today the Supreme Court hears a Kansas case called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kansas v. Cheever</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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In 2005 Scott Cheever, high on methamphetamines, brain addled by long term abuse of methamphetamines, intentionally shot and killed Greenwood, Kansas County Sheriff Matt Samuels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cheever was convicted of murder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kansas Supreme Court reversed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The State appealed and the case is being argued before the United States Supreme Court.</div>
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You'd think that it would be an open and shut case, what with Cheever having confessed to the homicide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn't. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cheever offered expert testimony that his use of the illegal drug prevented him from being able to form the required mental state necessary to commit the crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kansas responded with the testimony of a court appointed expert who likewise had examined Cheever. </div>
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Let's remember that for a crime to be a crime it takes two parts the actus reus [or the criminal act] and the mens rea [the culpable state of mind].<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Cheever did not raise the defense of mental disease or defect, which would not have applied to a case of self-intoxication. Cheever raised the issue of mens rea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That distinction now takes this case to the Supreme Court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On appeal the issue is whether or not the Fifth Amendment proscription against self incrimination applies to the facts of this case. </div>
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The law, as it stands today, is that when the criminal defendant raises the mental disease or defect defense then the state may rebut that defense with the testimony of a court appointed expert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is because the defendant raised the issue and when the court appoints the expert the defendant waives the Fifth Amendment rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br /></div>
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Here, the Kansas Supreme Court reasoned, Cheever made only the mens rea defense and thus the state cannot use the court appointed expert, violating the rule against self incrimination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What avenues were open to the state?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did the defendant provide MRI evidence to demonstrate the necrotic synaptic junctions that addled his brain to the point where Cheever couldn't form the adequate mens rea standard required by statute?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so that type of evidence can be reviewed and rebutted by the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no Fifth Amendment violation because the defendant raised the issue and presented the defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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It is a fine point of law in the balance of which the life of Scott Cheever hangs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The alternative to demanding Cheever's execution is called LWOP, that is a life sentence without the possibility of parole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If his brain is as damaged as he claims he will no doubt serve out his days in a place like the State Hospital in Larned, Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The way methamphetamine works on the brain is that it causes a rapid download of neurotransmitters like serotonin, GABA, dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the chemicals that permit communication between the brain and the body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rapid download is called the rush.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The addict craves the rush and consumes increasingly greater quantities of the drug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Methamphetamine and cocaine work in virtually the same way on the brain. </div>
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As the addict consumes greater quantities of the illegal drug the reuptake of the neurotransmitters are blocked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This leaves high concentrations of the drug congesting the synaptic junctions of the brain. This leads to areas of necrosis in the brains of addicts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These areas of necrosis can be revealed by an MRI or a CAT scan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The brain of the addict under these circumstances appears to resemble Swiss Cheese, where the holes in the cheese represent the dead areas of the brain.<br />
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The link to the briefs in this case are located at <a href="http://www.americanbar.org/publications/preview_home/12-609.html">http://www.americanbar.org/publications/preview_home/12-609.html</a>.</div>
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The briefs frame the issues of the case for the Supreme Court in the "QUESTION PRESENTED" section of the brief. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are the questions for this case. </div>
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<br /></div>
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1. When a criminal defendant affirmatively introduces expert testimony that he lacked the requisite mental state to commit capital murder of a law enforcement officer due to the alleged temporary and long-term effects of the defendant's methamphetamine use, does the State violate the defendant's Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination by rebutting the defendant's mental state defense with evidence from a court-ordered mental evaluation of the defendant? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. When a criminal defendant testifies in his own defense, does the State violate the Fifth Amendment by impeaching such testimony with evidence from a court-ordered mental evaluation of the defendant?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-20600154416780433682013-08-03T12:20:00.000-05:002013-08-03T12:20:14.167-05:00The Grand Old Plan<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Once upon a time in America the
bankers and Wall Street tycoons got so greedy that they wrecked the
economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their greed precipitated a time
called the Great Depression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In response
to hunger, homelessness, and hopelessness America elected a Democratic President
named Franklin Delano Roosevelt.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Prior to Roosevelt the Supreme
Court followed a judicial theory called Substantive Due Process, or in terms of
the Lochner Era economic due process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>During this time, the Lochner Era, courts struck down laws regulating
the workplace as violating the substance of the Contract Clause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Allgeyer </i>v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Louisiana</i>, 165
U.S. 578 (1897), which is considered the foundation of the Lochner Era cases,
the Supreme Court ruled that a state may not legislate in a manner designed to deprive
its citizens of the rights guaranteed under the Due Process Clause of the 14th
Amendment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Louisiana Constitution
prohibited foreign corporations from doing business in Louisiana, unless they
had a place of business and an authorized agent within the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A New York Company was selling policies in
Louisiana. Allgeyer bought a policy to cover goods being shipped by sea from
the port of New Orleans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was
convicted in the state court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this
case the Supreme Court chose to address the problem by ruling on behalf of the
citizen, not the state or the corporation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hence, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Allgeyer</i>, while
providing a basis for Lochnerism is distinguishable from that case.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lochner </i>v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York</i>, 198
U.S. 45 (1905) is about a state law passed by New York which said bakery
employees could not work more than 60 hours a week or 10 hours a day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The state justified this law, as a valid
exercise of the Police Powers, because it protects the health of the workers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Police
Powers</b> stem from the Tenth Amendment and is used by the states and local
governments to preserve and protect the safety, health, welfare, and morals of
the community. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The Supreme Court sided with the
bakery owner and said the law violated the bakery owner's right to contract
protected by the 14th Amendment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Court held that the law was not justified on the basis of protecting the health
of the employees.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Adair</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">United States</i>, 208
U.S. 161 (1907) is a case in which the Court struck down a federal law
prohibiting <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Yellow Dog Contracts</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These contracts were used by railroad
companies and required, as a condition of employment, that the prospective
employee agree not to join a union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here
the Court sided with the railroads saying the law was an "invasion of
personal liberty, as well as of the right of property, guaranteed by the Fifth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and is therefore
unenforceable as repugnant to the declaration of that amendment that no person
shall be deprived of liberty or property without due process of law."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Another <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Yellow Dog Contract</b> case, this time striking down a state law, came
from the Sunflower State.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Coppage</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kansas</i>, 236 U.S. 1 (1915) Kansas found the Yellow Dog Contracts to
be coercive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Supreme Court did not
agree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Court said, in part, "s<span class="headertext">ince a state may not strike down the rights of liberty or
property directly, it may not do so indirectly, as by declaring in effect that
the public good requires the removal of those inequalities that are but the
normal and inevitable result of the exercise of those rights, and then invoking
the police power in order to remove the inequalities, without other object in
view."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="headertext">Next the
Court struck down a Washington state law, written with the support of the Department
of Labor, that prevented privately owned employment agencies from assessing
fees for their services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Court, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Adams</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tanner</i>, 244 U.S. 590 (1917) held that the Washington law "is
arbitrary and oppressive, and that it unduly restricts the liberty of
appellants, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, to engage in a useful
business."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="headertext"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Child Labor Laws</b> were ruled
unconstitutional in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hammer</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dagenhart</i>, 247 U.S. 251 (1918).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And here boys and girls is where today's Republican
Party wants to return, pay close attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Congress passed a law prohibiting "transportation in interstate
commerce of goods made at a factory in which, within thirty days prior to their
removal there from, children under the age of 14 years have been employed or
permitted to work, or children between the ages of 14 and 16 years have been
employed or permitted to work more than eight hours in any day, or more than
six days in any week, or after the hour of 7 P.M. or before the hour of 6 A.M."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="headertext"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="headertext">In a world
view repugnant to our contemporary view of humanity, citizenship, and decency
the Supreme Court said "In our view, the necessary effect of this act is,
by means of a prohibition against the movement in interstate commerce of
ordinary commercial commodities, to regulate the hours of labor of children in
factories and mines within the States, a purely state authority. Thus, the act
in a two-fold sense is repugnant to the Constitution. It not only transcends
the authority delegated to Congress over commerce, but also exerts a power as
to a purely local matter to which the federal authority does not extend. The
far-reaching result of upholding the act cannot be more plainly indicated than
by pointing out that, if Congress can thus regulate matters entrusted to local
authority by prohibition of the movement of commodities in interstate commerce,
all freedom of commerce will be at an end, and the power of the States over
local matters may be eliminated, and, thus, our system of government be
practically destroyed."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="headertext"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Attacking Unions </b>was the theme of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duplex Printing Press Co.</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Deering</i>, 41 S. Ct. 172 (1921).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here the Court examined the Clayton Antitrust
Act and determined that a prior ruling in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lowe
</i>v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lawlor, </i>208 U.S. 274 (1908) which
prohibited secondary economic boycotts to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Union and its members were held
collectively and individually accountable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mr. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Justice Brandeis</b> saw it
differently in his dissent, which in part he said: "</span>The voluntary
adoption of a rule not to work on nonunion made material and its enforcement
differs only in degree from such voluntary rule and its enforcement in a
particular case. Such a determination also differs entirely from a general
boycott of a particular dealer or manufacturer with a malicious intent and
purpose to destroy the good will or business of such dealer or manufacturer."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Child Labor Laws</b> were again ruled unconstitutional in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bailey</i> v<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. Drexel Furniture Co</i>., 259 U.S. 20 (1922). At issue was the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1919 Child Labor Tax Law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>The law, in pertinent part said, SEC.
1200. That every person (other than a bona fide boys' or girls' canning club
recognized by the Agricultural Department of a State and of the United States)
operating (a) any mine or quarry situated in the United States in which
children under the age of sixteen years have been employed or permitted to work
during any portion of the taxable year; or (b) any mill, cannery, workshop,
factory, or manufacturing establishment situated in the United States in which <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">children under the age of fourteen years
have been employed or permitted to work</b>, or <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen have been employed or
permitted to work more than eight hours in any day or more than six days in any
week, or after the hour of seven o'clock post meridian, or before the hour of
six o'clock ante meridian</b>, during any portion of the taxable year, shall
pay for each taxable year, in addition to all other taxes imposed by law, an
excise tax equivalent to 10 percentum of the entire net profits received or
accrued for such year from the sale or disposition of the product of such mine,
quarry, mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Harkening back to their ruling in
<span class="headertext"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hammer</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dagenhart</i> the Court said Congress could
not impose a penalty in an area in which they lacked authority to regulate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="headertext"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Minimum Wage Laws for women and children</b>
were ruled unconstitutional in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Adkins</i>
v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Children's Hospital</i>, 261 U.S. 525
(1923).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here the Court held the law
violated the individual rights to contract and the liberties guaranteed to the
parties under the 5th and 14th Amendments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Court neatly equated the bargaining positions of individual women
and children as being comparable. Clearly they were not</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="headertext">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="headertext"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Food Security</b> wasn't even a notion, the
way we consider it, when <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">United States</i>
v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Butler</i>, 297 U.S. 1 (1936).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nonetheless, the Court ruled that "</span>Regulation
and control of agricultural production are beyond the powers delegated to the
Federal Government." Can you imagine a world in which the USDA did not
protect the food supply?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Minimum Wage </b>was a main issue with the Bituminous Coal Conservation
Act, also known as the 1935 Guffey Coal Act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Congress <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>regulated prices,
minimum wages, maximum hours, and "fair practices" of the coal
industry. The Court ruled the mining of coal was not commerce and the
establishment of minimum wages was a price fixing scheme.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The switch in time that saved nine</b> refers to a Court-packing plan
by President Roosevelt which would have added sufficient seats to the Supreme
Court to change the jurisprudence of the Court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It happened when Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts moved away from
Substantive Due Process in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">West Coast
Hotel Co</i>. v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Parrish</i>, 300 U.S.
379 (1937), a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">minimum wage case</b>, which
excluded men.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
From the syllabus: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
1. Deprivation of liberty to
contract is forbidden by the Constitution if without due process of law, but
restraint or regulation of this liberty, if reasonable in relation to its
subject and if adopted for the protection of the community against evils
menacing the health, safety, morals and welfare of the people, is due process. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
2. In dealing with the relation
of employer and employed, the legislature has necessarily a wide field of
discretion in order that there may be suitable protection of health and safety,
and that peace and good order may be promoted through regulations designed to
insure wholesome conditions of work and freedom from oppression. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
3. The State has a special
interest in protecting women against employment contracts which through poor
working conditions, long hours or scant wages may leave them inadequately
supported and undermine their health; because:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
(1) The health of women is
peculiarly related to the vigor of the race;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
(2) Women are especially liable
to be overreached and exploited by unscrupulous employers; and</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
(3) This exploitation and denial
of a living wage is not only detrimental to the health and wellbeing of the
women affected, but casts a direct burden for their support upon the community.
Pp. 394, 398, et seq.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
4. Judicial notice is taken of
the unparalleled demands for relief which arose during the recent period of
depression and still continue to an alarming extent despite the degree of
economic recovery which has been achieved. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
5. A state law for the setting of
minimum wages for women is not an arbitrary discrimination because it does not
extend to men. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
6. A statute of the State of
Washington (Laws, 1913, c. 174; Remington's Rev.Stats., 1932, § 7623 et seq.)
providing for the establishment of minimum wages for women, held valid. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Adkins</i>
v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Children's Hospital</i>, 261 U.S. 525,
is overruled</b>; Morehead v. New York ex rel. Tipaldo, 298 U.S. 587,
distinguished. P. 400.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And why you ask is this important
now?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It is because Senator Tom Coburn
has dropped his “<b>Enumerated Powers Act of 2013</b>,” into the hopper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This bill is cosponsored by “Senators Ayotte
(R-NH), Barrasso (R-WY), Blunt (R-MO), Boozman (R-AR), Burr (R-NC), Chambliss
(R-GA), Coats (R-IN), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), Cruz (R-TX),
Enzi (R-WY), Fischer (R-NE), Flake (R-AZ), Graham (R-SC), Grassley (R-IA),
Hatch (R-UT), Heller (R-NV), Inhofe (R-OK), Isakson (R-GA), Johnson (R-WI), Lee
(R-UT), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Moran (R-KS), Risch (R-ID), Roberts
(R-KS), Rubio (R-FL), Scott (R-SC), Sessions (R-AL), Thune (R-SD), Toomey
(R-PA), Vitter (R-LA), and Wicker (R-MS).”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Think Progress has an excellent
article which blueprints the Grand Old Plan to return to the days of Substantive Due
Process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They write: "To translate
this language a bit, in the late 19th Century, the Supreme Court embraced an
unusually narrow interpretation of the Constitution’s provision enabling
Congress to 'regulate commerce . . . among the several states.' Under this
narrow reading, which lasted less than half a century, the justices said that
they would only permit federal laws that regulated the transport of goods for
sale or a sale itself. Manufacturing, mining, production and agriculture were
all held to be beyond federal regulation. This theory was the basis for several
decisions striking down basic labor protections, including a 1918 decision
declaring a child labor law unconstitutional.</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The article is at <a href="http://tinyurl.com/mbbjkwl">http://tinyurl.com/mbbjkwl</a>.</span>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-88416049605510405972013-06-24T15:43:00.002-05:002013-06-24T15:43:53.856-05:00ONLY 415 DAYS TO THE NEXT KANSAS DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">There are 415 days
before the Kansas Democratic primary.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Democrats wanting to replace Sam Brownback as Governor, Jeff Colyer as
Lieutenant Governor, Kris Kobach as Secretary of State, Derek Schmidt as
Attorney General, or Ron Estes as Treasurer need to start doing their homework
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also Insurance Commissioner is up
for election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sandy Praeger's final term
is up, and the Kansas City Star opines that she no longer fits into today's
more radicalized Republican Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also
up are the 125 seats in the Kansas House, where the GOP leads 92 to 125</div>
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.</div>
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Whether you want to run for a statewide office or for a
House seat, now is the time to start building your team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Loyal Democrats tend to head up the county
organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of these local party
operations are well organized but most are not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do not be discouraged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your job
between now and then, especially in the House Districts is to build your team,
and you have time.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An effective way to make sure you have great contact
information for the Democratic and Unaffiliated voters in your district is to
go out and speak with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While you
are going through this introductory phase of your campaign put the focus on the
voters, find out what their interests are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When they begin to realize that you'll go to Topeka and work for them
and not just the rich people or the corporations then they are going to
remember who you are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One big mistake candidates make, and they tend to do this
because they are desperate for money to run the campaign, is the nonstop
request for money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Politicians sound
like tired kids demanding candy in the checkout lines of the local grocery
store.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don't lead with a fundraising
component.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But ask if they are on
Facebook or Twitter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get their information
and friend or invite them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not ask
for the email so you can stay in touch.</div>
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<br /></div>
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One county chairman, an old timer who has served a decade or
more in this role, after absolving himself of all responsibility for the defeat
of all Democratic candidates asked if it would be alright to mail all the
Democrats in the county a letter asking for their phone numbers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, I wanted to scream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get off your lazy keister and go knock on
doors, I wanted to interject.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But something
in Scripture about casting pearls before swine ran through my mind.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you want to run for office you need to go knock
doors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You will others who will work for
your campaign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here's an idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have a bunch of go-getters on your
team why not have them file to run for the committeemen and committeewomen
positions on your county's central committee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This way you have your team making the whole party stronger.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don't forget to ask if there are additional unregistered
voters at the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our numbers tend to
take a dive when it comes to younger voters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By getting the social networking and email contact information in your
database you are better poised to reach these new voters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So you think you want to run for office?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's great, now go start talking to
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell them who you are and what
bothers you about state government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask
them what bothers them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take notes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Find out who is on your central committee and
introduce yourself to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Start
attending their meetings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get a Facebook
and a Twitter set up to explore your candidacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If in doubt what to do next, go knock on a door in your district.</div>
Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-34812398609378366312013-04-06T11:46:00.001-05:002013-04-06T11:46:00.086-05:00ARE REPUBLICAN FARMERS CONTENT WITH RYAN'S REPEAL OF FARM SUBSIDIES?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">In the name of deficit reduction, the House Republicans passed another version of Paul Ryan's Ayn Rand inspired budget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will have to wait and see how farmers react to this budget, since it is their ox getting gored by the Republican Representatives for whom they tend to vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's right, Ryan puts farm subsidies on the chopping block. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Ryan's web page reports that "With farm profitability – and deficits – continuing at high levels, it is time to adjust support to this industry to reflect economic realities. This budget proposes two major reforms to achieve this: First, reduce the fixed payments that go to farmers irrespective of price levels, to reflect that soaring commodity prices are reducing the need for high levels of farm-income support. Second, reform the open-ended nature of government’s support for crop insurance, so that agricultural producers assume the same kind of responsibility for managing risk that other businesses do."</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Roger Johnson, President of the National Farmers Union, said "The Republican Leadership in the House of Representatives and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., have put forward an unrealistic and ill-advised budget. Their Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposal would cut $31 billion from farm programs – on top of the reductions that have already come by way of the farm bill extension and the sequester – and will turn the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) into block grants for states. The depth of the cuts to SNAP appear to be similar to last year’s House budget proposal, which totaled $134 billion. In 2012, the House Agriculture Committee passed a farm bill that would have cut $16 billion and the Senate passed their own farm bill with a $4 billion cut to SNAP.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">"We are certainly willing to do our fair share for deficit reduction, but these projected cuts to farm bill programs are many times larger than proportionate and will likely make it impossible to pass a five-year farm bill," Johnson said.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The money for SNAP being sent to the states in the form of block grants may work in some places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would not work in Kansas which is facing record deficits because of Governor Brownback's ill conceived <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tax policies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember what the states did with the millions they received from the tobacco settlement?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cash strapped states will squander money from the block grants at the expense of the hungry.</div>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-38521332221254644412013-03-04T14:19:00.001-06:002013-03-04T14:52:13.113-06:00A LESSON ABOUT MERIT SELECTION OF JUDGES FROM THE ASSASSINATION OF LEON JORDAN<div style="text-align: justify;">
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The assassination of Kansas City, Missouri civil rights activist and
State Representative Leon Jordan on July 15, 1970 carries a message to
Republicans in the Kansas Legislature: Don't politicize judicial elections.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">One of many factors for Jordan's death was his failure to
make an accommodation on behalf of a member of Kansas City's "black mafia with
a judge who owed allegiance to Jordan's political organization, Freedom
Incorporated.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Lord Acton is well known for the adage “Power tends to
corrupt and absolute power corrupt absolutely. Great men are almost always bad
men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you
superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When powerful elements want favor, they can get it from a
partisan judiciary that owes its allegiance to the whims of the ballot
box. An independent judiciary, free from
partisan political pressure, is insulated from granting favor and perverting
the role of justice in society.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Currently Kansas has merit selection of judges. Under existing law, vacancies in the Court of
Appeals are filled by appointment of the Governor from a panel of three
nominees who have been determined to be qualified to serve as judges of the
Court of Appeals by the Supreme Court Nominating Commission.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Kansas did not come to merit selection of judges willy-nilly. In 1956 Democratic candidate for Governor, George
Docking, Republican Warren Shaw, who had defeated Republican Governor Fred Hall
in the primary. Chief Justice Smith then
resigned due to ill health. Hall
resigned from office and his Lieutenant Governor, John McCuish took the oath of
office becoming Governor. McCuish
immediately appointed Hall to replace Smith on the Kansas high court. The political scandal was called the triple play.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It is imperative to keep politics and the potential for
corruption out of selecting appellate judges in Kansas. A bill, H.B. 2019 is matriculating through
the legislature with the intent of abolishing the merit selection of appellate
court judges. Let your Representative
know that you oppose H.B. 2019.</span></div>
Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-16063542434136278982013-02-27T10:08:00.000-06:002013-02-27T10:08:30.568-06:00SPEAKER BOEHNER IS MAKING AN ASS OF HIMSELF<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>John Boehner just made an ass of
himself.<span> </span>He did it this way: "The
president "is going all over the country holding rallies instead of
sitting down with Senate leaders," while, Boehner argued, "We have
moved a bill in the House twice." "We should not have to move a third
bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something," he
added<a href="http://www.blogger.com/.%20http:/www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57571323/on-sequester-boehner-tells-senate-to-get-off-their-ass/">.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57571323/on-sequester-boehner-tells-senate-to-get-off-their-ass/</a>.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why, you ask did Boehner make an ass of himself?<span> </span>Because this is February, 2013 which means we
are in the second month of the 113th Congress.<span>
</span>During the 113th Congress has been in session 21 days, <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/home/ds/h1131.html">http://thomas.loc.gov/home/ds/h1131.html</a>;
today will make the 22nd day.<span> </span>That's
right, the 113th Congress convened on January 3rd, now the rest of working
America had to suit up and show up for 39 of those 55days.<span> </span>Assuming they got the two day weekends
off.<span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">Boehner would mislead you into believing that the House of
Representatives has acted twice in those 39 days.<span> </span>They haven't.<span>
</span>The bills to which Mr. Boehner referred are the same bills the House GOP
spin machine fed Lynn Jenkins to spew out in her email to me.<span> </span>You recall, H.R. 6365 (a bill by former
Representative Allen B. West exempting the military from any budget cuts and
H.R. 5652 (that infamous Ryan budget).</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">So politicians lie, we should expect politicians to lie, and
how does this make the Speaker of the House of Representatives an ass, you
ask?<span> </span>Just as Representative West no
longer having a vote in the 133th session, so also are all of the bills passed
by one chamber but not passed by the other null <span style="font-size: small;">and void.</span><span> </span>All bills not passed by both houses of Congress
and signed by the President expire.<span> </span>The
authority for those bills to continue through the legislative process lapsed
with the termination of the session of Congress.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, isn't it time for the Senate to get off its ass
anyway?<span> </span>Maybe, but were the Senators to
cease endless gridlock and pass a bill pertaining to revenue it would be a
meaningless gesture.<span> </span>What?<span> </span>It is that little known document, the great
secret that Boehner hasn't yet been able to synthesize into his
Speakership.<span> </span>It is called the Constitution.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">Article 1 Section 7 of the Constitution says: "All
bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but
the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills."<span> </span>It is the job of the House of Representative,
of Speaker Boehner, of House Republicans to open up the legislative process and
get the ball going on a compromise to avoid sequestration, which is now
appropriately called Boehnerquestration.<span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;">If John Boehner doesn't know the basics of Article 1 of the
Constitution then he is not qualified to be the Speaker of the House.<span> </span>I suspect he does, he is just making an ass
of himself.</span></span></div>
Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-45270659747917920552013-02-26T09:57:00.001-06:002013-02-26T09:57:13.984-06:00Lynn Jenkins Reminds us SHE'S FOR THE 1%<div style="text-align: justify;">
Lynn Jenkins sent me an email describing her position on avoiding the sequester. In her missive Representative Jenkins noted that she
supported H.R. 5652 (112th Congress) as a better solution to avoiding the
Boehnerquester.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now most people will
take that at face value, being accustomed to being spoon fed information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I, however, am not one to accept Jenkins's
propaganda machine's output as Gospel.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
H.R. 5652 (112th Congress) is terrible legislation that
tries to bury the progress made during President Obama's first term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a lot wrong with the bill, and you
may see more than one blog on this bill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is that bad!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
In this piece of work Jenkins turns to one of her favorite
topics, protecting Golden Parachutes for the executives that, in the true
vulture capitalist tradition, wreck their businesses while skating off with
massive ill gotten gains in the form of bonuses and other compensation. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
The Dodd-Frank Act §210 puts it this way: "The FDIC may
avoid or invalidate certain prior transfers, agreements, leases, or
compensation to executives that hinder the ability of the FDIC to carry out its
duties."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those duties are winding
down the failed business while providing that claimants get at least as much as
they would have received under a bankruptcy liquidation."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In bankruptcy parlance that means the FDIC
can reach back and bring those monies back into the estate to be liquidated.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
What, you ask is Jenkins's voting record on Golden
Parachutes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let's review. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
From this Blog on June 5, 2010:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lynn Jenkins never saw a Golden Parachute she
didn't like. H.R. 1664, and the title says it all: "To amend the executive
compensation provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to
prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on
performance standards." This is another attempt to reign in Wall Street
Fat Cats giving themselves big paychecks and bonuses on the taxpayers dime.
Lynn Jenkins voted against us and for the Wall Street Fat Cats on roll call 247.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Then on June 10, 2010: H.R. 3269 the CORPORATE AND FINANCIAL
INSTITUTION COMPENSATION ACT OF 2009 gives stockholders rights some teeth when
it comes to executive compensation and golden parachutes. This bill gives the
Securities and Exchange Commission authority to make rules regarding these
compensation packages. Lynn Jenkins loves those golden parachutes. Again she
votes to keep exorbitant executive pay packages and those golden parachutes they
way they are. In roll call 686 Lynn Jenkins voted against H.R. 3269. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
On September 28, 2010 I wrote:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lynn Jenkins voted several times to do nothing
about those Golden Parachutes being paid out of taxpayer money. She voted
against letting shareholders have a mandatory binding vote on exorbitant
executive pay practices, H.R. 3269.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
voted against a bill allowing the Treasury Secretary<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>prohibit financial institutions from paying
excessive executive pay from taxpayer money, H.R. 384 and H.R. 1664. She
consistently voted against restraints on executive pay for Big Bankers while
the Big Banks are being Bailed Out! H.R. 3269 contained one weak provision
permitting non-binding shareholder votes on Golden Parachutes, which Lynn
Jenkins voted against.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
It is clear that at every opportunity to support Wall
Street, Big Banks, and the Silk Stocking Financial Sector Lynn Jenkins is with
them and against us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why she would
remind us of her callous disregard for the people during this debate over the
sequester is baffling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She does not
represent us, she represents the 1% and you waste your vote on them when you vote for her.</div>
Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-54034574412745624052012-12-08T10:20:00.000-06:002012-12-08T10:20:26.755-06:00<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Cool Chicks from History, </span><a href="http://coolchicksfromhistory.tumblr.com/"><span style="font-size: small;">http://coolchicksfromhistory.tumblr.com/</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">, posted the following Washington Post article on Tumblr.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I read the piece two things struck me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>First, society has come a long way from the protective paternalism demonstrated here. Men imposed their notions of protecting women by shielding them from obvious facts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Those were the days when such things were not discussed. </span>The editor of the Honolulu-Star Bulletin did not publish the article because it might further frighten the women of Honolulu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is oblivious to the reality that humans communicate, and for a newspaper editor that is irony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those women were already finding a voice and sharing their common experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having their story published would have given cohesion to their initiation to war, serving to make permanent the record of events from their perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Second, at the end of the article the author, Elizabeth McIntosh, told another story, that of the women who had known war, World War I.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those women remained prepared against the day when terror came calling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were able to jump right in and assist in the war effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why, I wonder, didn't the editor give the reporter instructions to expand on that effort? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Here is the link to the video that accompanied the article:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/thefold/a-reporter-remembers-the-vision-of-death-at-pearl-harbor/2012/12/05/a91c939a-3f3e-11e2-bca3-aadc9b7e29c5_video.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/thefold/a-reporter-remembers-the-vision-of-death-at-pearl-harbor/2012/12/05/a91c939a-3f3e-11e2-bca3-aadc9b7e29c5_video.html</a>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Here is the link to the article:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/honolulu-after-pearl-harbor-a-report-published-for-the-first-time-71-years-later/2012/12/06/e9029986-3d69-11e2-bca3-aadc9b7e29c5_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/honolulu-after-pearl-harbor-a-report-published-for-the-first-time-71-years-later/2012/12/06/e9029986-3d69-11e2-bca3-aadc9b7e29c5_story.html</a></div>
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<br />Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-29080152638757634622012-12-06T05:15:00.000-06:002012-12-06T05:37:06.603-06:00BISHOPS' GAMBIT<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">This piece was originally written for publication by a local newspaper. The editor of that paper had invited me to write from a progressive perspective. Unfortunately, he had a habit of forgetting to publish my work. I withdrew permission for that paper or any of its affiliated papers to publish my work.</span></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You probably saw the overly
simplistic ad sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Louis demagoging
the mandate that employers provide their female employees with a birth control
option.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The first woman said: “You
wouldn’t force an atheist to buy a Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s that simple.” Then the second, “You wouldn’t force a vegetarian to
buy you a hamburger. It’s that simple.” Finally the last intones <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why, then, would you ask a Catholic employer
to purchase your birth control?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is not that simple. No one is
asking the Catholic Church, operating as a Church, to provide female employees
with birth control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Church wants to
be empire within the Republic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By that I
mean it wants not only to be the Church, but the dominant force in the hospital
industry, and its own insurance company.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is a long tradition of
Catholic Hospitals, a good tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And we are no longer in the age where nuns man the wards and work for
nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today's Catholic Hospitals are
modern facilities competing successfully in the marketplace.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Across the nation Corporate
Healthcare is the template for Catholic Healthcare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wealthy Catholic systems purchase smaller
hospitals, often to extend health services to the less fortunate, requiring
Catholic standards regarding reproductive rights be enforced by secular
institutions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This imposes Catholic
theology on institutions and employees that do not share Catholic beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this respect the Catholic Church is trying
to do an end run around the First Amendment rights of others.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As a practical matter strict bans
on birth control and choice have not always worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Catholic part of the equation has made
arrangements for physicians to lease a floor of the hospital with a separate
elevator entrance so that women had full access to their health care choices.
Creating this Chinese Wall did not seem to violate Catholic religious liberty,
as long as the revenue continued flowing.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Self-insurance complicates the
Bishop's gambit to extend the cloak of religious liberty to traditional secular
activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also tossed a wrench into
the compromise forged by the White House with the Catholic Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That compromise tried using the same Chinese
Wall device permitting Catholic Hospitals to sidestep full access to women's
health care by shifting the burden to a third party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the rub is that the insurance company is
now the Catholic Church.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At the heart of the dispute is
the definition of a religious employer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here it is:
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>Group</u> health
plans sponsored by certain religious employers, and group health insurance
coverage in connection with such plans, are exempt from the requirement to
cover</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">contraceptive service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A religious employer is one that: (1) has the
inculcation of religious values as its purpose; (2) primarily employs persons
who share its religious tenets; (3) primarily serves persons who share its
religious tenets; and (4) is a non-profit organization under Internal Revenue
Code section 6033 (a)(1) and section 6033 (a)(3)(A)(i) or (iii).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>45 C.F.R. §147.130(a)(1)(iv)(B).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See the Federal Register Notice:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><u>Group Health Plans and Health
Insurance Issuers Relating to Coverage of Preventative Services Under the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act</u> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(<a href="http://www.healthcare.gov/law/resources/regulations/prevention/regs.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.healthcare.gov/law/resources/regulations/prevention/regs.html</span></a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bishops want a broader definition. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
The dilemma with the Bishops' gambit is that push eventually
leads to shove.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ultimately the Courts
are going to paint a bright line that says when the Church acts as a Church it
has full First Amendment protection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When the Church acts transitionally as a business those protections
begin to abate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the Church fully
engages in traditionally non-religious commercial activity, the protections of
the First Amendment, as to religious liberty, do not attach.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
The Bishops are overreaching.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-21316000538271175392012-12-01T10:47:00.000-06:002012-12-01T10:47:59.368-06:00<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
With thanks to Real Clear Politics, for their "create
your own map" feature, see, <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/obama_vs_romney_create_your_own_electoral_college_map.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/obama_vs_romney_create_your_own_electoral_college_map.html</span></a>,
I wondered what would it be like if the result of the Presidential Campaign
looked like the Powerball Map.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First,
here is the map.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmmeki_-cUmrFCG2AGLsoqy7bVTkNW7S1ZR_OQ2m0L2Sl0IuCFgXJSZeUxflncRhuHIXN_Oyx3bjyfe97r94ZjTx_3_JBE6oEx3aHZoc2077sYR6dYE3gr1QlP0usUtC-VVLoa_8Hop78M/s1600/powerball+as+electoral.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmmeki_-cUmrFCG2AGLsoqy7bVTkNW7S1ZR_OQ2m0L2Sl0IuCFgXJSZeUxflncRhuHIXN_Oyx3bjyfe97r94ZjTx_3_JBE6oEx3aHZoc2077sYR6dYE3gr1QlP0usUtC-VVLoa_8Hop78M/s400/powerball+as+electoral.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
To begin with there are 538 Electoral College votes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How, you ask did we get that number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is simple, there are 435 Members of
Congress and 100 Senators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Add those two
numbers together and you get 535.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
three missing votes come from the District of Columbia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you remember, the minimum number of votes
a state can have in the Congress is 3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Each state gets at least 1 Representative to the House and 2
Senators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Missing from this map are the
U.S. Virgin Islands, which shows up on the Powerball Map but since they are not
a state not on the Electoral College Map.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
What would be the circumstances that would cause Hawaii,
California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming to join with two states from the Heart of
Dixie, Mississippi and Alabama and be the losers in the Electoral College?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a big loss because the winner gets
449 votes to the loser's 89; And a victory of 449 votes is a landslide.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
History shows us big wins (or losses depending on
perspective).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1964 LBJ beat Goldwater
by 486 to 52.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Goldwater was painted as
an extremist and carried only Arizona, the Gulf States of Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama, and the old Dixie States of Georgia and South Carolina. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
In 1972 Tricky Dick Nixon rode his secret plan to end the
War in Vietnam to a landslide victory over McGovern, who won only Massachusetts
and the District of Columbia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
margin was 520 to 17.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nixon did not
finish the term, he resigned in disgrace on August 8, 1974.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Ronald Reagan swept into a 1980 victory with a populist
conservative message and tough talk against Iran, who was holding Americans
taken during a siege of our embassy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Reagan defeated Carter by 489 to 49, and the hostages were released on
inauguration day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Carter got more electoral college votes against Reagan than
did his Vice President who lost four years later by a margin of 525 to 13.
Regan easily handled Mondale in the Presidential Debates, sexism may have
played a role as Geraldine Ferraro was the Democratic Party's choice for Veep,
and the negatives in the first term didn't stick to Reagan who was called the
"Teflon President". Mondale won his home state of Minnesota and the
District of Columbia.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
George H. W. Bush beat Dukakis in 1988 by 426 to 111
painting the Massachusetts Governor as a crime coddling liberal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dukakis carried Washington, Oregon,
Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, West Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since 1988 no candidate has topped the 400
electoral vote count.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Winning by large margins is not always good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a college level Political Science course,
years ago, Southwest Missouri State's Professor Alice Fleetwood Bartee
suggested the best wins are the closest wins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Employing the theory of Occam's Razor, otherwise called the law of
economy, she taught that winning the simple majority puts less pressure on the
Administration to satisfy competing pressures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So winning a great majority means that the President has to deliver on
promises to competing groups, which often spells doom for reelection. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
In 1928 Republican Herbert C. Hoover beat the Democratic
candidate Alfred E. Smith by 444 to 87.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Smith carried Massachusetts, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, and South Carolina. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Four years later FDR trounced Hoover 472 to 59.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course there was enormous economic pain
following the Wall Street Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great
Depression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1936 FDR continued on to
another legendary win beating Kansan Alf Landon 523 to 8. Republicans started
to make inroads in 1940 win they ran Wendell L. Willke, who only lost to FDR by
449 to 82.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1944 FDR again topped the
400 electoral college vote mark besting Thomas E. Dewey 432 to 99.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>FDR died April 12, 1945, having won more
electoral college votes than anyone else in history.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
The 400 vote total didn't get topped until Ike ran in
1952.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man who commanded the Allied
Forces in Europe in World War II beat Adlai Stephenson by 442 to 89.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four years late he did it again 457 to 73.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-7791653401833045632012-11-12T12:17:00.001-06:002012-11-12T12:17:26.397-06:00RULE # 1: Make Googling Easy [if you want to be found]<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is an observation for the tech savvy political
conscious among us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a rush to get to
the home page of the Kansas Democratic Party I Googled "KDP".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did not find the Kansas Democratic Party
until page 11 of that search.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What, you
ask, did I discover?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among the finds
are:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Kindle Direct Publishing, Kappa Delta Pi, the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (close but no cigar), KDP Studio, KDP Asset Management, the
Killer Dowel Pin, Kaltura Dynamic Player, KDP, Potassium dihydrogen phosphate,
the Urban Dictionary's Know Dis Piece, a Kidney Disease Program, and the Kent
Downtown Partnership (Kent, Washington).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Finally on page 10 of the Google search there was reference
to the remarks of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chair of the KDP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was not the KDP link for which I was
searching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At best the first mention of
KDP came in a collateral form. On page 20 the link to the Kentucky Democratic
Party appeared. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">After 50 pages of persisting through the various KDPs I
concluded that you can't get to the Kansas Democratic Party by Googling
KDP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the cyber world grammar is a
lost art and spelling a casualty of convenience; speed and instant
gratification are de rigueur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>The KDP,
meaning the Kansas Democratic Party, needs to refine its cyber brand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Now I forget what is was that I wanted to know from the Kansas Democratic Party. I am going to check out the Kurdistan Democratic Party instead.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-8565940425521814812012-10-24T11:37:00.001-05:002012-10-24T11:37:15.545-05:00How Loss of Title X Funding nearly resulted in 49 Abortions.
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In March the Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC) rejected Title X funding. The Republic reported "[T]he
reasoning behind their decision is that taxpayer money shouldn’t be spent to
hand out contraceptives."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the
BOCC accepted, from Miami County women, an amount equal to the grant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The County matched those funds by half, just
as they would have matched the grant money.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Arithmetic and numbers is
important to understanding what the BOCC did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There has been confusion about the amount of the grant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The grant request was for $30,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The grant award was $9,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The county has always matched half, or $4,500.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the grant awarded was $20,000 the match
would be $10,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's the way it
works. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Title X serves the County's
Family Planning Clinic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A volunteer for
the Health Department prepared a report which the BOCC had prior to rejecting
Title X funds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That reports says that
54% the women using this program are below the poverty line and 20% are below
150% of that standard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>77% of these
women, 116, have no insurance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What could go wrong?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our County does not have a safety net clinic
and private physicians cannot afford to absorb the costs of health care on a
pro bono basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women with limited means
tend to buy food, pay rent, or take care of necessities instead of spending on
their health care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Missed infections can
lead to costly emergency room visits, increasing hospital costs for everyone.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The report made a statistical
analysis about the impact of denying Title X funds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the report 85% of women with
regular sexual activity will become pregnant within one year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means these 116 women will have 98
pregnancies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What happens to those 98
pregnancies?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following national trends
49 of them will result in live births and 49 of them will be terminated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked if those 49 terminations included
miscarriages or spontaneous abortions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The answer was no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Denying Title
X created the circumstance for 49 abortions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Clearly the BOCC didn't think this through. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Of the remaining 49 pregnancies
30 result in normal vaginal deliveries and 19 require caesarian section.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hospital costs for uncomplicated deliveries
are less than $9,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is $270,000
for 30 women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hospital costs for
c-sections are more than $15,000, or at least $285,000 for 19 women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is over a half a million dollars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have to ask ourselves what is more cost
efficient, matching $4,500 for the Title X grant or covering $555,000 in
hospital costs?</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Uninsured women tend to receive
no prenatal care, putting both mom and baby at risk for additional health
issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The baby will likely be taken to
a special care nursery. Women lacking prenatal care do not get the counseling
Title X provides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They aren't alerted to
the importance of stopping smoking, drinking, taking prescription drugs, or
other drugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no opportunity to
tell them to avoid exposure to certain environmental or chemical toxins.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In 2010 the health department
Title X grant was $8,398.00 The County matched half of that or $4,199 for
salaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The clinic earned $6,455.58 in
fees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Expenses that year were
$10,883.90.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Family Planning Clinic
was in the black by nearly $4,000.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We did not see 49 abortions this
year, or escalating rates of sexually transmitted diseases, or a disruption of
adult vaccinations because Miami County women stepped up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The October mammogram clinic is funded by
Saint Luke's Hospital, thanks Episcopalians.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What will we do next year?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rely on the generosity of women or see the
BOCC make better choices?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-20370160039327603782012-10-13T16:18:00.000-05:002012-10-13T16:18:28.892-05:00Report to Miami County, Kansas on Impact of Gutting Title X FundingThis is what the Board of County Commissioners [BOCC] knew, or should have known, before voting to gut Title X funding for Miami County, Kansas. And yes, when the report talks about "terminated pregnancies" it means abortions, not spontaneous miscarriages. The economic impact on the county is catastrophic and the humanitarian impact on lower income women and children is despicable.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2MOu36EAGTWTTFxc1uVIy_cTzTimxp1E2PvMl4FYF2DUmEcgAjWcHHRP5LBdGqr751DbIShlqOakuNMFB2mX4L78pgPOVqEBbCoBlUYVkW9ol1YjYC5vT-1Eo0qTPDaijVSDsHjtolWM8/s1600/Health+Dept+Report+to+BOCC+on+Title+X,+page+one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2MOu36EAGTWTTFxc1uVIy_cTzTimxp1E2PvMl4FYF2DUmEcgAjWcHHRP5LBdGqr751DbIShlqOakuNMFB2mX4L78pgPOVqEBbCoBlUYVkW9ol1YjYC5vT-1Eo0qTPDaijVSDsHjtolWM8/s640/Health+Dept+Report+to+BOCC+on+Title+X,+page+one.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpKtn_hRVwfVYlIcoa80ivM7K-3Zw6hcOmoENKz8onvUkKl6er1txuGeLA70hVw3q09JWCoRAz3IvYJcnu_uXbXiYH04GuXhyN0jkQ79RHW_Vcg5QTEFzenRoimhUbzwg_thIsrvUKP2y/s1600/Health+Dept+Report+to+BOCC+on+Title+X,+page+three.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpKtn_hRVwfVYlIcoa80ivM7K-3Zw6hcOmoENKz8onvUkKl6er1txuGeLA70hVw3q09JWCoRAz3IvYJcnu_uXbXiYH04GuXhyN0jkQ79RHW_Vcg5QTEFzenRoimhUbzwg_thIsrvUKP2y/s640/Health+Dept+Report+to+BOCC+on+Title+X,+page+three.jpg" width="550" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMYj4i5P2PG_NkVUPATZfQd8NtsfBwwwHvMFEB-LKtN-WN-Pgll0G_HdXPdewwPjaQHoHaaJFz-E3eQQzLzbEmxFZUXSZDx78MzSoiOrO-hCWg7LkOvRxvOASKeIhwp4v4xmCi9Msn1DqV/s1600/Health+Dept+Report+to+BOCC+on+Title+X,+page+really+three.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMYj4i5P2PG_NkVUPATZfQd8NtsfBwwwHvMFEB-LKtN-WN-Pgll0G_HdXPdewwPjaQHoHaaJFz-E3eQQzLzbEmxFZUXSZDx78MzSoiOrO-hCWg7LkOvRxvOASKeIhwp4v4xmCi9Msn1DqV/s640/Health+Dept+Report+to+BOCC+on+Title+X,+page+really+three.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-15047966723892339112012-10-03T09:40:00.000-05:002012-10-03T09:44:11.264-05:00Inspired by a Letter to the Editor<div style="text-align: justify;">
Last week the <em>Miami County Republic</em> ran a guest column I wrote called "<span class="blox-headline entry-title">Fairness needs to be the focal point during this election season". See, <a href="http://www.republic-online.com/opinion/article_0a843102-89bb-504f-9d70-04dfd607519b.html">http://www.republic-online.com/opinion/article_0a843102-89bb-504f-9d70-04dfd607519b.html</a>. In this piece I skewered Paul Ryan as being an adherent of Ayn Rand's godless philosophy, the Romney/Ryan tax plan, the Browback tax plan, and certain (anti-abortion) single issue voters.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="blox-headline entry-title"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="blox-headline entry-title">Today's <em>Republic </em>contains my first letter to the editor, not from me but about me. I am delighted. Public Opinion needs to be a two way street and I am grateful for the lady who sat down and put pen to paper to tell us how I made her feel. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="blox-headline entry-title"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="blox-headline entry-title">This lady's opening volley is that "we still live in the greatest nation, for now anyway". That puzzled me, I could have seen something about politics making strange bedfellows or challenging my fuzzy math on tax policy. Since I didn't take a stand on American greatness I went ahead and took a look at it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="blox-headline entry-title"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="blox-headline entry-title">Fortunately, the good people at the Pew Institute did all the work, <a href="http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2045/america-global-standing-most-say-among-greatest-but-not-single-greatest-nation">http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2045/america-global-standing-most-say-among-greatest-but-not-single-greatest-nation</a>. It seems that Americans don't all agree that we are number one. The differences spread out over a range of demographic categories.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="blox-headline entry-title"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="blox-headline entry-title">First is how we view that question of greatness when you sort us by our ages. Younger Americans are less likely to say that America is the greatest nation. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmKVzvJxjHScNwxrLGuHjYGnIrvvHiVMm1jiyWYc75YUtrxNxcnYgcEbSH_IRt-TmPay659WBikYNocCmq5i48urJkKdj73-ilnHVbCm5gDL9xYhpFxPor4oNP0ETCpzPUyuhjOCjOIdQD/s1600/Fewer+young+people.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmKVzvJxjHScNwxrLGuHjYGnIrvvHiVMm1jiyWYc75YUtrxNxcnYgcEbSH_IRt-TmPay659WBikYNocCmq5i48urJkKdj73-ilnHVbCm5gDL9xYhpFxPor4oNP0ETCpzPUyuhjOCjOIdQD/s400/Fewer+young+people.png" width="370" /></a></div>
<br />
Next Pew looked at how we answer that question based on our politics. The most conservative are most likely to agree that America is the greatest nation on earth. At the other end of the spectrum the most liberal are most likely to disagree with the statement. Across the board 38% of all Americans say America is the greatest, 53% say we are among the world's great nations, and 8% say there are other nations greater than America.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhOnq2c7MrGC-Ke6vBUQTTLwVFfADgEAb_MlmS5WaGDg9TPCLxlecWf2CaQuhW1uErmkvCpsOCOTjntq1YLNXWeE5OtsHYKmXdXR55hGR353dNt_IUyeXc71fYJ47_wnn6CsEaZKmaw1JD/s1600/staunch+conservatives.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhOnq2c7MrGC-Ke6vBUQTTLwVFfADgEAb_MlmS5WaGDg9TPCLxlecWf2CaQuhW1uErmkvCpsOCOTjntq1YLNXWeE5OtsHYKmXdXR55hGR353dNt_IUyeXc71fYJ47_wnn6CsEaZKmaw1JD/s400/staunch+conservatives.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
The lady who wrote the letter then said something about which she and I will have to agree to disagree. She thinks most voters are single issue voters looking out for themselves first. <br />
<br />
We may be talking about apples and oranges. Single issue voters will only vote for candidates who agree with them on that issue. For these voters their issue is a litmus test. <br />
<br />
Categorically, we know that all voters are not single issue voters. For insight I visited an article published by the famous Pollsters at Gallup. In an article written about single issue voters in the race between Kerry and Bush, I found the example I was looking for. The article was written by Lydia Saad, a senior Gallup Poll Editor. You can find the entire article online at <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/13786/abortion-issue-guides-one-five-voters.aspx">http://www.gallup.com/poll/13786/abortion-issue-guides-one-five-voters.aspx</a>.<br />
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My position is that the anti-abortion voters whose sole criteria in voting is to select anti-abortion candidates abdicate their power over all other issues. What they get are legislators who wreck the environment, who defund our schools, who manipulate the tax code for the very rich, and do many other things that the voters would not approve if they sat down and thought about the votes of their legislators. Instead these voters have become accustomed to being told what they want to hear. They do not require accountability from their elected officials.</div>
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In Kansas the Romney/Ryan tax plan is not just hypothetical it is called the Brownback tax fiasco. In Kansas those earning $25,000 or less will see a 5000% tax hike next year. Back to the point, Kansans earning $25,000 or less, cannot afford to vote for their anti-abortion candidate, since those are the legislators who voted to increase their taxes.</div>
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For the record, I never said anything about gay marriage, nor do I feel obliged to respond to her rant on the topic. You may note the "equality on board" logo on this Blog's page and know that I stand in solidarity with those who for too long have been denied equal protection of the law. One does not need to be aggrieved by the injustice to be offended by it.</div>
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The letter's final valid point is well taken. The lady suggested that voters pray before going to the polls. That's good, but here she and I will have to again agree to disagree. You see it is equally important to think before you vote. Single issue voters don't do this. Single issue voters get the government they deserve because they have squandered the power of the ballot box.</div>
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Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-44057441368379243192012-06-14T10:39:00.000-05:002012-06-14T10:39:53.993-05:00REPUBLICAN JOBS BILLS DEBUNKED: THREATEN NATION'S HEALTH, TRADE WITH THE ENEMY, AND TAX VETERANS<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><br />When Republicans are talking about their Jobs Bills this is what they really mean:<br /><br /> <strong>#1. H.R. 872</strong>, the <strong>Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011</strong>, is a jobs bill if, and only if, the Republican jobs plan is to develop jobs in oncology. This bill gets rid of the alleged job killing regulations regulating pesticides entering our streams and lakes. This bill says it is okay to use these pesticides without a permit. The problem began with citizen lawsuits and was exacerbated by the Environmental Protection Agency, under President George W. Bush, issuing a rule that said no permits were needed to use pesticides in, near, or over our lakes and streams.<br /><br />In National Cotton Council v. EPA (553 F.3d 927), a consolidated case from the Sixth Circuit, that court concluded that the EPA's final rule, not requiring permits for the use of pesticides capable of entering the waterways, was not a reasonable interpretation of the Clean Water Act's permitting requirements. The court rejected EPA's contention that, when pesticides are applied over, into, or near waterbodies to control pests, they are not considered pollutants as long as they comply with FIFRA, and held that NPDES permits are required for all pesticide applications that may leave a residue in water. This bill wants to overturn National Cotton Council. Note to House Republicans: Americans do not want poisons in the waters we drink, bathe, wash dishes, and do laundry. <br /><br /> <strong>#2. H.R. 910</strong>, the <strong>Energy Tax Prevention Act</strong>, is another amazing bill from the House Republican Conference that will give America jobs in oncology. The bill is falsely premised on the notion that greenhouse gases do not adversely affect the environment. This bill clears the way for big polluters to foul the air we breathe.<br /><br />Respected and notable scientific organization, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, the U.S. Global Change Research Program, as well as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are all in agreement that manmade greenhouse gases do contribute to climate change, and that these impacts can be mitigated through policy to curb these emissions.<br /><br /> Additionally, many of the Nation's top public health advocacy groups, including the American Lung Association and the American Public Health Association, as well as leading civil rights groups, such as the NAACP and the Environmental Law and Poverty Center, have all come out strongly against this bill saying that it would leave our most vulnerable citizens and our most vulnerable communities unprotected if this bill were to become law.<br /><br /><strong> #3. H. J. Res. 37</strong>, a <strong>Resolution of disapproval regarding the FCC’s regulation of the Internet and broadband industry practices</strong>. This Resolution expresses Congress's disapproval of the rule adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on December 21, 2010, relating to preserving the open Internet and broadband industry practices. Prohibits such rule from having any force or effect. Republicans want to turn the clock back to the days when behemoth companies monopolized the internet marketplace.<strong> Do you remember 50¢ a minute dial up service</strong> using a modem? <br /><br /> This is a Republican effort to shut down the one job-creating engine that has driven our economy over the last 15 years, since we opened up the competition through legislation. The GOP wants to shut it down. Fifty percent of the growth of our economy in the 1990s was in the internet sector, because we had competition.<br /><br /> <strong>#4. H.R. 2018</strong>. the <strong>Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011</strong>, is another attack by the Republican Conference on the Clean Water Act. Under this legislation, the EPA would be prohibited from recommending stricter discharge standards for toxic pollutants such as lead or mercury, even if the protection of human health is at stake, unless the State consents to such changes. In my view, this policy does not move our Nation forward, but rather reverses our direction and moves our Nation back 40 years to before the enactment of the Clean Water Act. Polluted water means more cancer, more cancer means more jobs in oncology.<br /><br /> <strong>#5. H.R. 1315</strong>, the <strong>Consumer Financial Protection & Soundness Improvement Act</strong>, is an affront to Americans. Before Senate Republicans will even allow the President's nominee as Chairman of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, House Republicans want to gut the power of that office. The President's nominee is Richard Cordray of Ohio. His nomination is in the process of being returned to the President under Rule XXXI, paragraph 6 of the Standing Rules of the Senate at sine die adjournment of the 112th Congress, 1st session. That will trigger the President's power to make a recess appointment of Mr. Cordray.<br /><br />President William J. Clinton made 139 recess appointments, 95 to full-time positions. President George W. Bush made 171 recess appointments, of which 99 were to full-time positions.2 As of December 8, 2011, President Barack Obama had made 28 recess appointments, all to full-time positions.<br /><br /> <strong>#6. H.R. 2587</strong>, <strong>Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act</strong>, is another example of Republicans siding against working people by taking away the rights of workers under the National Labor Relations Act.<br /><br /> H.R. 2587 amends the National Labor Relations Act to deny the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) any power to: (1) order an employer (or seek an order against an employer) to restore or reinstate any work, product, production line, or equipment; (2) rescind any relocation, transfer, subcontracting, outsourcing, or other change regarding the location, entity, or employer who shall be engaged in production or other business operations; or (3) require any employer to make an initial or additional investment at a particular plant, facility, or location. And it reaches all complaints already in the system. It applies the amendment made by this Act to any complaint for which a final adjudication by the NLRB has not been made by the date of enactment. The GOP wants Americans to have the right to work for less and less.<br /><br /><strong>#7. H.R. 2401</strong>, the <strong>Transparency In Regulatory Analysis Of Impacts On The Nation (the TRAIN Act)</strong> is another Republican attack on the Clean Air Act. The TRAIN Act, will block and indefinitely delay two EPA rules that reduce pollution from power plants: the Mercury and Air Toxics Rule and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. These rules are critical to protecting the public health. Each year these rules will prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths, tens of thousands of heart attacks, and hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks. They will also prevent over 2 million lost workdays. If this legislation is enacted, these public health benefits will be lost, and more babies will be born with birth defects and learning disabilities.<br /><br />The Whitfield amendment will eviscerate the law's ability to require power plants to install modern pollution controls. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said that if the Whitfield amendment is enacted, EPA will never be able to issue a rule to prevent emissions from power plants in one State from polluting the air in a downwind State. She also said that the amendment could destroy the agency's ability to ever reduce toxic mercury emissions from power plants.<br /><br /> The Latta amendment is even worse. It will reverse 40 years of clean air policy, repealing the health-based standards that are at the heart of the Clean Air Act. The Latta amendment would allow our national goals for clean air to be determined by corporate profits, not public health.<br /><br />Until George W. Bush took over America managed to both clean up the environment and have a robust economy. We can have jobs without pollution. These radical amendments were never examined in hearings or debated in the Energy and Commerce Committee or in any other committee. Members were asked to vote on major changes to the Clean Air Act without any idea of their terrible impact on air quality and public health. And those amendments are in this bill, this very bad bill.<br /><br /><strong> #8. H.R. 2681</strong>, is the <strong>Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act</strong>. The Republicans again say if we want jobs, we have to have pollution. Only, where are the jobs? Prior to passage of H.R. 2681 the House voted 136 times this Congress to block action to address climate change, to halt efforts to reduce air and water pollution, to undermine protections for public lands in coastal areas, and to weaken the protections of the environment in other ways as well. This is the most anti-environment Congress in history.<br /><br />Last month, the House passed radical legislation to turn back 40 years of progress towards clean air. That bill will nullify pollution control requirements on power plants--the largest source of toxic mercury pollution in the country--and weaken our national clean air goals by basing them on corporate profits, not on public health.<br /><br />With H.R. 2681 the House continues its frontal assault on public health and the environment. This bill would gut Clean Air Act provisions protecting American families from toxic air pollutants. If this bill is enacted, there will be more cases of cancer, birth defects, and brain damage. The ability of our children to think and learn will be impaired because of their exposure to mercury and other dangerous air pollutants.<br /><br />In 1990, the Congress, on a bipartisan basis, voted to protect the public from these toxic pollutants. The law directed EPA to set standards requiring the use of a Maximum Achievable Control Technology to control emissions of mercury, arsenic, dioxin, PCBs, and other toxic emissions. This approach has worked well. Industrial emissions of carcinogens and other highly toxic chemicals have been reduced by 1.7 million tons each year.<br /><br />EPA has reduced pollution from dozens of industrial sectors. More than 100 categories of sources have been required to cut their pollution, and this has delivered major public health benefits to this Nation. But a large source of categories still have not been required to control toxic air pollution due to delays and litigation.<br /><br />H.R. 2681 would nullify and indefinitely delay EPA's efforts to reduce toxic emissions from cement plants. The bill says that EPA cannot require any pollution reduction from any cement plant for at least 5 years<br /><br /><strong>#9. H.R. 2250</strong>, the <strong>EPA Regulatory Relief Act</strong>, is another bill paving the way for more environmental pollution. This bill provides that the following rules shall have no force or effect and shall be treated as though they had never taken effect: (1) the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Major Sources: Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Boilers and Process Heaters; (2) the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Area Sources: Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Boilers; (3) the Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources and Emission Guidelines for Existing Sources: Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incineration Units; and (4) Identification of Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials That are Solid Waste. There is the GOP's grand jobs bills plan, giving no force or effect to EPA rules and regulations so that corporate polluters can dump toxic matter into the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the earth upon which we live.<br /><br /><strong>#10. H.R. 2273</strong>, the <strong>Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act</strong> is a bill that blocks the EPA from issuing science-based standards to manage the disposal of coal ash. The Republican majority rejected language, which had the support of a number of utilities, which would have protected EPA's authority to issue health-based standards under the Clean Water Act.<br /><br />House Republicans are attacking the EPA and not working on jobs. This bill does nothing to regulate coal ash in a way that protects the environment or public health. This bill wants to give regulatory power to States, but there is no national minimum standard for State permitting programs in this bill.<br /><br />The municipal solid waste standards used by this dangerous piece of legislation are inadequate to protect our communities from dangerous toxins. Many of the toxins found in coal residuals are simply dangerous to public health and are known cancer-causing agents. Just a few of the toxins found in coal ash include arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel, and that's not the whole list.<br /><br /><strong>#11. H.R. 1904</strong>, the <strong>Southeast Arizona Resource Utilization & Conservation Act</strong>, simply put this bill gives away National Forest land to the Resolution Copper Corporation. There could be between $2 billion to $7 billion worth of copper on this land. So you may ask, what is the problem. <strong>The problem is trading with the enemy</strong>. <br /><br /> A controlling 55 percent of Resolution Copper's shares are owned by the giant mining conglomerate Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto owns 65 percent of the world's largest open pit uranium mine, the Rossing Mine, in Namibia. Their second-largest partner in the Rossing Uranium Mine, with a 15 percent stake and two people on the board of directors, is the government of Iran.<br /><br />Democrats offered a motion to recommit with instructions, called the Deutch Amendment, to require that the benefit of our nation's copper resources will not accrue to Iran. That motion failed. This bill is reckless because the uranium from the mine in Namibia is the stuff that Iran is converting into nuclear grade material. <br /><br /> The U.N. Security Council has six times approved resolutions condemning Iran for its violations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and this House has twice enacted strong Iran nuclear sanctions. Yet Rio Tinto is in partnership with the Iranian government to mine uranium. This bill tells Rio Tinto to disregard the U.N. sanctions and to disregard the sanctions of U.S. law.<br /><br />What the Deutch amendment said is that if you want to do business with America, you need to stop doing business with Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Under this amendment, as soon as Rio Tinto severs its partnership with Iran and Ahmadinejad, Rio Tinto's Resolution Copper affiliate can proceed to take title to these very valuable Federal lands in Arizona in the United States of America.<br /><br />H.R. 1904 undermines our nuclear nonproliferation policy.<br /><br /> <strong>#12. H.R. 2433</strong>, the <strong>Veterans Opportunity to Work Act of 2011</strong>, is not really a jobs bill, it is a retraining bill. Who pays for this retraining? <strong>One group of veterans is taxed to pay the freight on the new program</strong>.<br /><br /> Representative Bob Filner [D. CA-51] the ranking member of the Committee on Veterans Affairs, described H.R. 2433, as it went through the committee process, as a bill that did not create jobs, but actually taxed veterans. Republicans have taken a pledge not to vote for anything that taxed anybody. H.R. 2433 bill taxes veterans. Filner says: "It actually taxes one group of veterans to help some other group of veterans. And I still feel the same way about the bill as it came through the process. Now I support all programs that will help veterans and improve their lives, and I know this bill is called a jobs bill. But, it is merely a retraining bill."<br /><br />If there is any group of Americans who don't deserve to be taxed for the training that might get them a job it is our veterans. <br /><br /> <strong>#13. H.R. 1230</strong>, is the <strong>Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act</strong>, is the legislative response from House Republicans to the "Drill Baby Drill" chant of the 2008 Republican National Convention. <strong>House Republicans learned nothing from the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill</strong>. Their bill does not address the lax regulatory relationship between the Department of the Interior and the oil industry. <br /><br />The Obama administration is already moving forward to hold these lease sales in the Gulf later this year and early next year, and they are going to be more responsible in assessing the environmental impact of offshore drilling. Even the Congressional Budget Office analysis of H.R. 1230 concludes, "CBO estimates that implementing the bill would have no significant impact on proceeds from lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico because the proposed schedule is similar to the plan included in the DOI's budget for 2011".<br /><br />The other big problem with H.R. is that it requires the sale of offshore oil lease drilling permits off the shore of Virginia. 78% of that area is utilized by our Armed Forces as a training area. The military says that offshore oil rigs will impede readiness by impeding training. The balance of that area is home to major shipping lanes, making the area unacceptable as a site for offshore drilling.<br /><br /> <strong>#14. H.R. 1229</strong>, the <strong>Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act</strong>, is what the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, Representative Russ Holt [D. NJ-12] calls one of the <strong>"Amnesia Acts"</strong> because the Republicans act as if Gulf Oil Spill never happened. <br /><br /> Only 1 year and 19 days before H.R. 1229 came to the floor of the House, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded killing 11 workers and creating economic and environmental havoc. For 87 days following the explosion, more than 4 million barrels of oil spewed from the blown-out Macondo well, coating nearly 1,000 miles of gulf coastline and temporarily closing over 88 square miles of some of the Nation's most productive fishing grounds.<br /><br />Holt reminds us that "this Congress has not enacted a single legislative reform to improve the safety of offshore drilling. Instead, the majority now brings forward in the name of spurious claims a bill to encourage more domestic offshore drilling without applying the lessons learned from the gulf blowout. With the spurious claim that more domestic offshore drilling will lower gas prices, they claim that we have to grease the skids, we have to open the doors, we have to give further breaks to the oil companies."<br /><br />H.R. 1229 imposes artificial and arbitrary deadlines on the Department of the Interior to approve permits to drill. Specifically, this legislation requires the Department to act on a permit to drill within 30 days. After 60 days, whether or not--whether or not, the safety and environmental review has been completed by the Interior Department, the drilling application would be deemed approved.<br /><br />Offshore drilling in U.S. waters, as determined by the spill commission, the bipartisan, independent spill commission, is four times more deadly than in other parts of the world prior to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. It was four times more deadly to drill in the gulf by the same companies than to drill, for example, in the North Sea, hardly a comfortable environment. Under this bill, we could actually have less careful oversight and review of offshore drilling than we had before the Deepwater Horizon disaster.<br /><br />This legislation issues a blanket extension of existing leases. In contrast to this across-the-board approach, the Department is working on a case-by-case basis to extend existing leases affected by the temporary suspension of new drilling, where such action is warranted, not on a blanket basis but on the basis of the actual facts, of the actual evidence. H.R. 1229 would give a free ride to companies even if their leases are many years from expiring.<br /><br />Under the George Bush administration, in 2008, the Energy Information Administration said, if all drilling over the entire east coast Continental Shelf were opened up, the effect on oil prices would be "insignificant."<br /><br />H.R. 1229 also contains language designed to close the doors of the courthouse to citizens who believe that the Federal Government is not complying with the law. Imagine that. Citizens who are trying to be diligent citizens would not be able to make sure that the law is being applied. Citizens from Florida or Alabama would be forced to bring any lawsuits regarding energy projects in the Gulf of Mexico to Louisiana or Texas courts. In addition, H.R. 1229 contains language that would prevent attorneys' fees from being awarded in successful cases--a deterrent if I've ever heard of one. These provisions are aimed at environmental plaintiffs, but will almost certainly impair the legal rights of many other potential plaintiffs, including other oil and gas companies. <br /><br />Bringing suit will be almost impossible because the bill creates a presumption that the administrative findings and conclusions relating to the challenged federal action or decision are correct. Rebuttal of this presumption is available, but only by the preponderance of the evidence contained in the administrative record. This will have a severe impact on the ability of litigants to develop an evidentiary record.<br /><br /><strong>#15. H.R. 1231</strong>, is the <strong>Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act</strong>, and is the third of what Representative Holt calls the "Amnesia Acts". This bill mandates new leasing off the economically important coastlines of southern California, Alaska, and the entire eastern seaboard, before stronger safeguards can be put in place. It's cynical to claim that more drilling will relieve high gas prices. More drilling only means more profits for the oil industry, not lower costs at the pump.<br /><br /> Oil companies hardly need a boost right now. They're receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies and reaping record profits.<br /><br /> On top of that, the oil industry is already drilling more than ever before. For example, offshore production has increased by more than a third in the last 2 years, and the gulf produced 1.6 million barrels of oil per day last year, an all-time record. Yet, despite all that drilling, gas prices continue to soar, and the reason is clear: More drilling here in the U.S. has little effect on the global oil market.<br /><br /> Nearly three-quarters of the world's proven oil resources are owned by OPEC nations. Even if we expanded offshore drilling significantly, there wouldn't be an impact on gas prices until 2030; and even then, it would be a matter of just 5 cents a gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration.<br /><br /> <strong>#16. H.R. 2021</strong>, is the <strong>Jobs and Energy Permitting Act</strong>, is a huge giveaway to the Big Oil Lobby. The flaws in the legislation include allowing huge increases in air pollution from oil and gas drilling activities by moving the point of measurement from the drill ship to the shore.<br /><br /> This bill of the States to regulate the emissions of support vessels and it sets an arbitrary deadline of 6 months for final agency action on every offshore exploratory drilling permit, no matter the size or complexity of the proposed operations. The EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation testified before the Energy and Commerce Committee that 6 months is too short to allow for adequate technical analysis, public participation, GPO's PDF and administrative review. Witnesses for the States of California and Delaware agree this wouldn't work for their State programs. Yet these concerns have been ignored.<br /><br /> The legislation eliminates the Environmental Appeals Board from the permitting process, even though it is a cheaper, faster, and more expert substitute for judicial review. And it requires all challenges to air permits to be raised before the Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., thousands of miles away from the affected communities.<br /><br /> The administration opposes H.R. 2021 because it would curtail the authority of EPA to help ensure that domestic oil production on the Outer Continental Shelf proceeds safely, responsibly, and with opportunities for efficient stakeholder input. <br /><br /> <strong>#17. H.R. 1938</strong>, the <strong>North American-Made Energy Security Act</strong>, is yet another attempt by House Republicans, controlled by the Big Oil Lobby, to expedite the Keystone XL pipeline. <br /><br />The <strong>Keystone XL pipeline would carry a sludge made from Canadian tar sands</strong> through the middle of America. In doing so, it would raise gas prices, endanger water supplies, and increase carbon emissions; and that's why it should not be approved.<br /><br />Keystone XL will make us more reliant on the dirtiest source of fuel currently available. On a life-cycle basis, tar sands emit far more carbon pollution than conventional oil--almost 40 percent more by some estimates. That's because it takes huge amounts of energy to take something the consistency of tar, which they mine, and turn it into synthetic oil. We should be reducing our oil dependence and using cleaner fuels, but Keystone is a big step in the wrong direction.<br /><br /> There are many other concerns, including safety. One year after the Kalamazoo River oil pipeline spill 30 miles of the river are still closed. Another massive oil pipeline spill occurred into the Yellowstone River. TransCanada, Keystone XL's owner and operator, has had 12 spills on the first Keystone pipeline in its first year of operation. <strong>Keystone One was even shut down by the Department of Transportation as "hazardous to life, property, and the environment.'' The risks from spills are exacerbated with Keystone XL because it is rooted through the Ogallala aquifer, which spans eight States and providing drinking water for 2 million people</strong>.<br /><br /> </div>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-34311783772998668392012-03-27T13:17:00.001-05:002012-03-27T14:42:14.942-05:00The Abortion Cases, a synopsis - before we move forward.<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Abortion Cases<o:p></o:p></b></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part One</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-one.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-one.html</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Skinner</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oklahoma</i>, an Oklahoma case authorizing the sterilization of criminals convicted of felonies equivalent to moral turpitude was struck down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Procreation is a fundamental right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Griswold</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Connecticut,</i> is the case that legalized birth control. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">United States</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vuitch, </i>involved the statutory interpretation of the District of Columbia's abortion statute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eisenstadt</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Baird, </i>is a case that raised the issue of privacy and Equal Protection of the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The case centered around a lecture given about a vaginal foam contraceptive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under the law the speech was illegal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A single woman picked up a sample of the contraceptive which was also illegal because the law only permitted married couples from employing contraception.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Two</b>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-two.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-two.html</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wade</i>, is the landmark decision legalizing abortions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a well reasoned and well decided case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only weakness in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i> is that the it places the law on a collision course with Medical Science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i> grants a woman a qualified right to have an abortion while acknowledging the State Interest in preserving fetal life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That interest is always secondary to the life and the health of the woman seeking the abortion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doe</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bolton</i>, was the companion case to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i>, and involved a Georgia statute containing procedural requirements the Court said violated the Fourteenth Amendment. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Three</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-three.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-three.html</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Danforth</i>, raised the issue of fetal viability. Here the Court ruled that if the fetus can be kept alive, even with medical devices, then that option can be enforced by the State over abortion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the Court said that Missouri could not give the spouse veto power over the wife's decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Court ruled that Missouri could require consent but those conditions did not apply in emergency situations where the mother's life hung in the balance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Likewise the Court rejected the notion of blanket requirements that the parents of minors be notified of the abortion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Court struck down the ban on the most common form of abortion amniocentesis.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bellotti </i>v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Baird</i>, is another parental notification case. The court struck down this blanket notification law.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Four</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-four.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-four.html</span></a>. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maher</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beal</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doe</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poelker</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doe</i> are companion cases. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maher</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poelker</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doe</i> each deal with statutes that limited the use of public funds in paying for abortions. These two cases each ask the question if Connecticut, in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maher</i> case, and the city of Saint Louis, Missouri, in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poelker</i> case, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poverty is not a suspect classification for heightened scrutiny, these states did not need to foot the bill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fundamental right recognized in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wade</i> was distinguished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>States need not show a compelling state interest in refusing to fund abortions, their statutes must be reasonably related to their policy choice of preferring live birth to abortion.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beal </i>v. Doe focuses on Title XIX of the Social Security Act requirement <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that states participating in the Medicaid program fund the cost of nontherapeutic abortions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Court disagreed since when Title XIX passed the Congress abortions had not yet been legalized.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Five</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-five.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-five.html</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harris</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">McRae</i>, more challenges were levied at Title XIX based on right to privacy, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, or the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was a challenge to the Hyde Amendment prohibiting the use of federal dollars for abortion. These challenges failed, but barely; the Court reached a 5 to 4 decision.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Six</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-six.html%20"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-six.html</span></a>. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">City of Akron</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Akron Center for Reproductive Health, </i>is another case about the state's elevated interest in the third term of the pregnancy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Court reaffirmed the State's interest in health regulation becoming compelling at approximately the end of the first trimester. That compelling state interest in health is only the beginning of the inquiry. The State's regulation may be upheld only if it is reasonably designed to further that state interest. The State is obliged to make reasonable efforts limit the effect of its regulations to the period in the trimester during which its health interest is furthered.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Seven</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-seven.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-seven.html</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Planned Parenthood Association</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ashcroft</i> a sharply divided Court struck down part of a Missouri statute while upholding other sections of the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Requiring second trimester abortions to be performed only in hospitals was again held unconstitutional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Missouri's requirement of a second physician and a pathology report were found to be reasonably related to the purpose of the statute.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">A Virginia statute requiring abortions to be performed in hospitals was not held to be unconstitutional in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Simopoulos</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Virginia</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The exception here was that Virginia licensed not only Hospitals but outpatient surgical centers as well. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Eight</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-eight.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-eight.html</span></a>. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thornburgh</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists</i>, finds another deeply divided Supreme Court delivering a 5 - 4 opinion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The issue here was informed consent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The opinion struck down the Pennsylvania law saying Pennsylvania cannot coerce a woman into continuing an unwanted pregnancy.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Nine</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-nine.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-nine.html</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Webster </i>v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reproductive Health Center</i>, the Supreme Court in a fractured decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only Pat II-C, which dealt with public funding was unanimous, the State of Missouri argued the statute only dealt with officials who were responsible for expending funds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the appellees removed their claim making the issue moot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When there is not controversy it is to find unanimity. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Part II-A dealt with the preamble to the statute which Missouri said was instructive and had no operative effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In dissent Associate Justice Blackmun wrote "To the extent that it merely makes "legislative findings without operative effect," as the State argues, it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment."</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Chief Justice Rehnquist used Part II-D to assail the strict trimester rule developed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wade</i>.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Part III of the opinion narrowed and restricted <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe </i>v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wade</i> holding that Missouri has determined that viability is the point at which its interest in potential human life must be safeguarded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The collision course upon which <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i> and medical science has now been noticed by the Court.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">In his scathing dissent Blackmun wrote "The plurality opinion is filled with winks, and nods, and knowing glances to those who would do away with Roe explicitly, but turns a stone face to anyone in search of what the plurality conceives as the scope of a woman's right under the Due Process Clause to terminate a pregnancy free from the coercive and brooding influence of the State."</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Ten</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-ten.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-ten.html</span></a>. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Public funding of family planning under Title X was scrutinized in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rust</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sullivan</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The challenge in this case was a facial challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A facial challenge applies the inconceivable standard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is inconceivable that under any circumstance the statute is constitutional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an extremely high threshold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other kind of challenge to the constitutionality of a statute is the as applied challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In an as applied attack the person arguing that the statute is unconstitutional need only demonstrate that under a particular set of circumstances the law is invalid, even if it is valid under other circumstances and for other reasons. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Court seldom sustains a facial challenge to a federal statute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>State statutes tend not to receive the deference accorded Acts of Congress.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rust</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sullivan</i>, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services developed regulations pursuant to authority conveyed by Title X.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are three parts to the regulations that were being challenged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, a Title X project may not provide counseling concerning the use of abortion as a method of family-planning or provide referral for abortion as a method of family planning. Second, the regulations broadly prohibit a Title X project from engaging in activities that "encourage, promote or advocate abortion as a method of family planning. Third, the regulations require that Title X projects be organized so that they are "physically and financially separate" from prohibited abortion activities.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">The Court found the language of Title X ambiguous. Rehnquist said it was permissible for separate facilities and record keeping be maintained. The Court's majority also rejected, by tiptoeing through a long line of cases, the argument that the rules advanced here violated the First Amendment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally the Court summarily dismissed any claims predicated on denial of a woman's Due Process Rights under the Fifth Amendment.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Harry Blackmun's called the majority's opinion disingenuous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Stevens said: "I am convinced that the 1970 Act did not authorize the Secretary to censor the speech of grant recipients or their employees, I would hold the challenged regulations invalid and reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals."</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said: "In this case, we need only tell the Secretary that his regulations are not a reasonable interpretation of the statute; we need not tell Congress that it cannot pass such legislation. If we rule solely on statutory grounds, Congress retains the power to force the constitutional question by legislating more explicitly. It may instead choose to do nothing. That decision should be left to Congress; we should not tell Congress what it cannot do before it has chosen to do it. It is enough in this case to conclude that neither the language nor the history of 1008 compels the Secretary's interpretation, and that the interpretation raises serious First Amendment concerns. On this basis alone, I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and invalidate the challenged regulations.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Eleven</b>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-eleven.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-eleven.html</span></a>.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">With <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Casey</i>, the Court again delivered a fractured opinion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At issue was a facial challenge [inconceivable standard] to five sections of a Pennsylvania statute requiring informed consent, informed consent for a minor, certification of husband notification, defining medical emergency, and imposing reporting requirements.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">The District Court held all the provisions unconstitutional and permanently enjoined their enforcement. The Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part, striking down the husband notification provision but upholding the balance.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor addressed the tension in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i> between a woman's unfettered right under the Fourteenth Amendment to terminate her pregnancy and the State's interests in protecting potential life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her opinion reflected the rule from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Webster </i>v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reproductive Health Center</i>, that the point where the state's elevated interest in protecting fetal life begins with viability.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Nino Scalia, in his dissent, said that he does not believe that our "Liberty" is not protected by the Constitution. "The issue is whether it is a liberty protected by the Constitution of the United States. I am sure it is not. I reach that conclusion not because of anything so exalted as my views concerning the "concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." Rather, I reach it for the same reason I reach the conclusion that bigamy is not constitutionally protected--because of two simple facts: (1) the Constitution says absolutely nothing about it, and (2) the longstanding traditions of American society have permitted it to be legally proscribed."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Twelve</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-twelve.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-twelve.html</span></a>.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stenberg</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carhart</i> brought a Nebraska statute criminalizing late tern abortions before the Court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Associate Justice Breyer began his 5-4 opinion affirming that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wade</i> would not be overturned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Breyer's opinion focused on three established principles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"First, before 'viability … the woman has a right to choose to terminate her pregnancy.'”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Second, 'a law designed to further the State’s interest in fetal life which imposes an undue burden on the woman’s decision before fetal viability' is unconstitutional."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Third, ‘subsequent to viability, the State in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.'"</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Stevens said that it made no sense for Nebraska to choose one method of abortion over another. For the notion that either of these two equally gruesome procedures performed at this late stage of gestation is more akin to infanticide than the other, or that the State furthers any legitimate interest by banning one but not the other, is simply irrational."</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice O'Connor said "a ban on partial-birth abortion that only proscribed the D&X method of abortion and that included an exception to preserve the life and health of the mother would be constitutional."</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Ginsberg said "if a statute burdens constitutional rights and all that can be said on its behalf is that it is the vehicle that legislators have chosen for expressing their hostility to those rights, the burden is undue."</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Scalia, who as we recall cannot find the concept of Liberty in the Constitution, attacked the Court's opinion as "policy-judgment-couched-as-law."</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justices Kennedy's and Thomas' dissents violently clash with the Court's majority opinion in general and Justice O'Connor's opinion in particular. Chief Justice Rehnquist with Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas would give great deference to Nebraska. They find Justice O'Connor's view that the statute would pass constitutional muster with an appropriate exception for the health of the mother disingenuous.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Thirteen</b>: <a href="http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-thirteen.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2010/06/abortion-cases-part-thirteen.html</span></a>.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gonzales</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carhart</i> and the companion case of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gonzales</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Planned Parenthood Federation of America</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>finds the Court tackling the gruesome topic of Partial Birth Abortion, again.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Carhart facial challenged the constitutionality of the Act. Carhart claimed the Act was void for vagueness, or in the alternative, was constitutionally infirm because it placed an undue burden based on a woman's right to abortion based on the Act's overbreadth or lack of health exception.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Kennedy concluded that the Act in this case was not void for vagueness and did not impose an undue burden from any sense of overbreadth. The facial challenge to the Act failed.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">It is important to note that the Act applies without regard to whether the fetus is pre or post viable. This point was uncontested by the parties.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">To fall within the Act, a doctor must perform an “overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills the partially delivered living fetus.”</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Finally the Court discusses mens rea, "Fourth, the Act contains scienter requirements concerning all the actions involved in the prohibited abortion. To begin with, the physician must have “deliberately and intentionally” delivered the fetus to one of the Act’s anatomical landmarks.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Clarence Thomas continues to claim that there is no right to an abortion under the Constitution.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Associate Justice Ginsburg delivered an attack of the opinion in her dissent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said "Today’s decision is alarming. It refuses to take <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Casey</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stenberg</i> seriously. It tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). It blurs the line, firmly drawn in Casey, between previability and postviability abortions. And, for the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman’s health."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Quoting Seventh Circuit Chief Judge Richard Posner she said "if a statute burdens constitutional rights and all that can be said on its behalf is that it is the vehicle that legislators have chosen for expressing their hostilities to those rights, the burden is undue."<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>That took the line of cases to 2007.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now we see states, like Kansas, doing what the New England Journal of Medicine spoke about, adopting laws that tell the physician to ignore the health of the patient.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">See, <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMhle072595"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMhle072595</span></a>.</div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-26217379176123736482012-03-24T11:25:00.000-05:002012-03-24T11:25:12.925-05:00A Preview of the Three Cases Challenging the PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT in the United States Supreme Court Next WeekGetting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act before the United States Supreme Court is a behemoth undertaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it took several cases to get the issues to the Court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here they are, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Department of Health and Human Services</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Florida</i> is docket number 11-398 and pertains to the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) (but really health care reform); <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Florida </i>v<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. Department of Health and Human Services </i>docket number 11-400 (Medicaid); and another part of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Department of Health and Human Services</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Florida</i> docket number 11-398 (Minimum Coverage Provision).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">The Anti-Injunction Act, 11-398, gets argued on Monday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Minimum Coverage Provision, 11-398, will be heard on Tuesday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Medicaid Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 11-400, (ACA) will be on the Court's agenda Wednesday</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Department of Health and Human Services</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Florida</i> the question on the Anti-Injunction Act, 26 U.S.C. §7421 (A) is focused on why this challenge to the ACA's mandate to obtain health insurance is not barred by the AIA's prohibition on "suit[s] for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of any tax." Which is the position of the State of Florida.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ACA structured a penalty for failure to comply with the individual coverage mandate and in so doing relied on its Constitutional Authority under the Commerce Clause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, in part, the Department argues the AIA is inapplicable because the ACA is not imposing a tax. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">The Tuesday version of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Department of Health and Human Services</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Florida</i> looks at the Minimum Coverage Provision of the ACA. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The question presented is whether the Minimum Coverage Provision of the ACA<span style="font-family: "CenturyExpdBT","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: CenturyExpdBT;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is a valid exercise of Congressional Power under Article I of the Constitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Department will be arguing that the </span>Minimum Coverage Provision is a valid exercise under the Commerce Clause since it relates to interstate commerce and the provision is a necessary component of the ACA's objective to achieve Insurance Reform.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">The third aspect of this case asks the question relating to Medicaid. Has the Congress exceeded its enumerated powers and violate basic principles of federalism when it coerces States into accepting onerous conditions that it could not impose directly by threatening to withhold all federal funding under the single largest grant-in-aid program, or does the limitation on Congress's spending power that this Court recognized in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">South Dakota</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dole</i>, 483 U.S. 203 (1987), no longer apply?</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">The rule in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">South Dakota</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dole</i> the Congress established a national drinking age of twenty-one years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>South Dakota permitted persons nineteen years and older to drink containing 3.2% alcohol by weight (which is equivalent to 4% by volume).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The law, Title 23 U.S.C. §158 (1982 ed., Supp. III), directed the Secretary of Transportation to withhold a percentage of otherwise allocable federal highway funds from States "in which the purchase or public possession . . . of any alcoholic beverage by a person who is less than twenty-one years of age is lawful."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So South Dakota was losing highway funds and they sued the Secretary of Transportation, Elizabeth Dole.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">This relates to Medicaid funds in the case before the Court next week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">South Dakota</i> v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dole</i> the Court said "[i]ncident to the spending power, Congress may attach conditions on the receipt of federal funds. However, exercise of the power is subject to certain restrictions, including that it must be in pursuit of "the general welfare.""<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion in the case and went on to say "[s]ection 158 also is consistent with the spending power restrictions that, if Congress desires to condition the States' receipt of federal funds, it must do so unambiguously, enabling the States to exercise their choice knowingly, cognizant of the consequences of their participation.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">Next week is going to be historic at the Supreme Court next week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to listen to the oral arguments in the case, they will be posted following argument on March 26<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>th</sup>, 27<sup>th</sup>, and 28<sup> th</sup> at </span><a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/"><span style="color: blue;">www.supremecourt.gov</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That link is currently at the bottom of the page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to read the orders, briefs, and other information about this case go to <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/PPAACA.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/PPAACA.aspx</span></a>. </div>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-67386011664814679812012-03-23T10:46:00.000-05:002012-03-23T10:46:42.614-05:00Kansas is Redistricting<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you have been having a difficult time trying to follow Kansas' efforts at redistricting you are not alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kansas Legislative Research Department is trying to clarify the process for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their site, </span><a href="http://redistricting.ks.gov/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://redistricting.ks.gov/</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, takes you to maps showing you the current districts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's good for a starting point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we get into discussions about this city being placed in a district with that city, it is good to see how things are now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To see the current districts click on the button called "plans" which takes you to the plans page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Select current plans and you'll see the current map.</span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you want to see the proposed plans you can click on that button as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are eight proposed plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Click on the plans and go page by page through the PDF to get not only the big picture but also detail on counties where the boundary lines are shifting. For instance the map M5<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>_ ELLA JEAN for KLRD TR, by Holton Republican Representative Trent Ladoux takes Linn County away from the Second Congressional District and puts it in the First Congressional District.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Emporia's Republican Representative Peggy Mast wants Louisburg and Bucyrus to be carved out of the Second Congressional District and placed in the Third Congressional District with Johnson County and Wyandotte County in what she is calling the M5 _ Capitol 1 map.</span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thus far it looks like the Eisenhower B plan which put Kansas City, Kansas and Dodge City, Kansas in the same district has been withdrawn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kansas House appears to have said no to the Capitol 1 map earlier this week.</span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is another button on the plans page and it is for draft plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are plans that have not made it through the review process and there are twenty-six draft plans for Congressional Districts.</span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If redistricting is not completed by May 10th the filing deadline for U.S. House, Kansas House and Senate, and State Board of Education will be June 10th.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the redistricting is completed before May 10th the deadline for those offices is June 6th.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All pertinent election calendar dates are on the Kansas Secretary of State website at </span><a href="http://www.kssos.org/elections/12elec/2012ElectionCalendar.pdf"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.kssos.org/elections/12elec/2012ElectionCalendar.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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</div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-3534493398393501792012-03-02T12:35:00.001-06:002012-03-02T12:37:35.331-06:00Kansas Presidential Elections, a brief look backwards.<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">2012 could end up looking a lot like 1964 where the Republican nominee was perceived as being too extreme to govern from the center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the Republicans split and form a third party, say they hijack America Elects, then this year could be like 1948 or 1992.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Below is a little history on Presidential elections in Kansas.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Kansas Presidential Election Summary</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">1864 marked the first time candidates from the Republican and Democratic Parties went head to head in the race for the White House.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prior to 1864 it was not uncommon to see several candidates from the same political party vying for the nation's top job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1836, for example, three Whigs competed against Vice President Martin Van Buren, the Democratic candidate.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Zachary Taylor was elected President from the Whig ticket in 1848.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His running mate, Vice President Millard Fillmore, was the last Whig to make a national run for office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1856 he came in third behind the James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate and John Freemont, the Republican nominee who placed second.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Kansans first participation in Presidential elections also came in 1864.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the election in the midst of the Civil War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kansas went for Lincoln, as did every state in the Union save Kentucky, Delaware, and New Jersey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Missouri voted for Lincoln over the Democratic candidate George McClellan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1860, Lincoln came in fourth in Missouri behind Democratic candidate Stephen Douglas who garnered 35.52% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coming in second was John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party with 35.26% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Missouri's third choice that year was John Breckenridge of the Southern Democratic party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He earned 18.94% of the Show Me vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lincoln's last place finish saw him gather only 10.28% of the Missouri vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">By 1868 the Civil War was over and President Lincoln was dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>General Ulysses S. Grant ran for the Republican Party and former New York Governor Horatio Seymour was the Democratic nominee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seymour was nominated on the fourth ballot despite have told the convention that he did not want to be the nominee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grant got 68.82% of the Kansas vote, 52.66% of the popular vote nationwide, and 72.8% of the Electoral College vote. </span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Kansas' 1872 results mirrored the 1868 returns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>President Grant took the state with 66.46% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Democratic nominee, Horace Greeley, earned 32.80% of the vote. Greeley ran in Kansas as a Liberal Republican.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Write in votes took 0.58% of the vote while Charles O'Connor, running as a Straight Democrat, came in last with 0.16% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">1876 was the year when the candidate winning the popular vote lost the White House by losing the electoral college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won 63.10% of the Kansas vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coming in second was the Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden with 30.53% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Greenback candidate, Peter Cooper, received 1% of the Kansas vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Republicans continued their lock on Kansas in 1880 seeing James Garfield take 60.40% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Democratic candidate, Winfield Hancock, took 29.72% of the state's votes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Greenback party did much better in 1880 in Kansas getting 9.86% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In 1884 the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland, won the nation while losing Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cleveland came in second with 33.90% of the vote behind Republican James Blaine who took 58.08% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Benjamin Butler took 6.15% of the Kansas vote running as a Greenback.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Republicans took back the White House in 1888, the Greenbacks are gone, the Union Labor Party shows up, and the Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland, came in second in Kansas with 31.03% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Benjamin Harrison, the Republican, received 55.23% of the Kansas vote and coming in third was Alson Streeter with 11.41% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In 1892 the Democratic Party won the White House, the Union Labor Party faded into history, and the Populist Party won the vote in Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>James Weaver, running on the People's and Democratic Party,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>got 50.20% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coming in second was Republican Benjamin Harrison with 48.40% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Third place in Kansas went to John Bidwell running on the Prohibition ticket and getting 1.40% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Kansas voted Democratic in 1896, the Republicans kept the White House, and three other parties entered the fracas. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic nominee, received 51.32% of the Kansas vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coming in a close second was the Republican, William McKinley, with 47.63% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joshua Levering of the Prohibition Party took third with .51% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coming in fourth was John Palmer of the National Democratic Party with .36% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, fifth place went to Charles Bentley of the National Party with 0.19% of the votes cast.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">William McKinley repeats as President in 1900, wins Kansas, and some familiar names begin showing up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kansas went for McKinley over the Democratic candidate Bryan by a margin of 52.56% to 45.96%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Woolley of the Prohibition Party took 1.02% of the vote while the Socialist candidate, Eugene V. Debs, garnered fourth place with 0.45% of all ballots cast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not on the ticket in Kansas was Joseph Maloney of the Socialist Labor party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teddy Roosevelt and Adlai Stevenson were the Vice Presidential candidates of their respective parties.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In 1904 Theodore Roosevelt keeps the Republican lock on Kansas and wins the White House defeating the Democratic nominee Alton Parker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kansas vote split 64.81% to 26.23% in favor of Teddy Roosevelt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist, 4.83% of the vote, coming in ahead of the Prohibition candidate, Silas Swallow, who had 2.22% of the vote, and Thomas Watson of the People's Party, who earned 1.90% of the Kansas vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Kansas went Republican again in 1908 voting for William Taft over William Jennings Bryan by a margin of 52.46% to 42.88% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eugene V. Debs on the Socialist Party ticket took 3.30% of the Kansas vote besting Eugene Chafin of the Prohibition Party, 1.34%, and Thomas Hisgen, of the Independent Party who ended up with 0.02% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson won a Kansas squeaker in 1912 besting Teddy Roosevelt 39.30% to 32.88%, a difference of 23,453 votes out of a total of 365,560 ballots cast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the year that Roosevelt ran as an Independent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>President Taft, the Republican came in third with 20.47% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Socialist Eugene V. Debs received 7.33% of the vote, while write in votes accounted for 0.02% of all votes.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In 1916 President Wilson retained the White House and won Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wilson's 49.95% of the vote handed Republican Charles Evans Hughes the Kansas loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hughes, who won 44.09% of the Kansas vote, went on to be a Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A new Socialist, Allan Benson, received 3.92% of the Kansas vote while James Hanley of the Prohibition Party came in last with 2.05% of votes cast.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The 1920 election roared in with Warren G. Harding winning the White House and Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harding's taking of 64.75% of the ballots made him the clear Kansas winner. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Democratic nominee, James Cox, received 32.52% of the vote and Eugene V. Debs, again the standard bearer for the Socialist Party came in third with 2.72% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were 75 write in votes accounting for 0.01% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Calvin Coolidge won Kansas, the White House, almost everything except Dixie and Wisconsin in 1924.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coolidge swamped the Democratic candidate, John Davis, 61.54% to 23.60%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Robert LaFollette ran nationally as a Progressive and was on the ballot in Kansas as an Independent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>LaFollette garnered 14.86% of the Kansas vote. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three write in votes accounted for 0.00% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The 1928 election was a nationwide landslide victory for Republicans and Herbert Hoover who won Kansas. In Kansas Hoover trounced Alfred Smith of the Democratic Party 72.02% to 27.06%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Norman Thomas, of the Socialist Party, took 0.87% of the vote while Independent William Foster came in last with 0.04% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">After the Wall Street Crash and the onset of the Great Depression the 1932 election saw a Democratic landslide victory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Franklin D. Roosevelt won the race and Kansas voted for him 53.56% to Hoover's 44.13%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Socialist Norman Thomas came in last with 2.31% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">F.D.R. maintained his winning ways in Kansas and across the nation in 1936.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Landon only won Maine and Vermont in '36. Roosevelt won Kansas besting favorite son Alfred Landon 53.67% to 45.95%. %.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Socialist Norman Thomas came in third.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William Lemke running nationally for the short lived Union Party was not on the ballot in Kansas but did receive 497 write in votes for 0.06% of the total.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In 1940 Franklin Roosevelt won the White House but lost Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Republican Wendell Willke topped F.D.R. in the Kansas vote 56.86% to 42.40%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Roger Babson of the Prohibition Party was third with 0.47% and Norman Thomas, the Socialist Party nominee, came in last with 0.27% or 2,347 votes.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Kansas bucked the national trend again in 1944 giving Thomas Dewey a 60.25% win in the Sunflower State.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>F.D.R. held onto the White House despite only getting the support of only 39.18% of the Kansas vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Prohibition Party's candidate, Claude Watson took 0.36% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Norman Thomas, the Socialist Party nominee, came in last with 0.22%.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Kansas went Republican in 1948, America elected Harry S. Truman, J. Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats split and formed the States Rights Party, and it wasn't close in Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ticket of Thomas Dewey and Earl Warren got all 8 Kansas electoral votes in '48 beating Harry Truman and Alben Barkley 53.63% to 44.61%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Henry Wallace, running as a Progressive nationally was on the Kansas ballot as an Independent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He got 2.37% of the Kansas vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Socialist Norman Thomas came in last with 0.29% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thurmond's States Rights Party was only on the ballots of the former States of the Confederacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Earl Warren went on to become an excellent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">World War II was over and America liked Ike, Kansas' favorite son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ike swept most of the nation, except for a few Southern States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Kansas it was Eisenhower over Adlai Stevenson 68.77% to 30.50%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stuart Hamblen took 0.67% of the vote for the Prohibition Party and Darlington Hoopes got 530 votes for 0.06% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">1956 was a repeat win for Republican Dwight David Eisenhower who trounced Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic nominee, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>65.44% to 34.21%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enoch Holtwick of the Prohibition Party emerged with 0.35% of the total vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">1960 brought America the first televised Presidential Debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John Kennedy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nationwide the race was close in the popular vote (49.72% for Kennedy to 49.55% for Nixon) and the electoral college (303 for Kennedy to 219 for Nixon, there were 15 unpledged electors).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Kansas Kennedy only won two counties, Ellis and Wyandotte.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kansas handed Dick Nixon a 60.45% to 39.10% win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rutherford Decker received 0.45% of the vote for the Prohibition Party.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Kennedy was assassinated, Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson had succeeded Kennedy, Arizona's Senator Barry Goldwater had the Republican nomination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>L.B.J. had a huge victory, won election, and won Kansas 54.09% to Goldwater's 45.06%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E. Harold Munn came in third in Kansas with 0.63% for the Prohibition Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric Hass ended up last with 0.22% of votes cast.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Wyandotte County, Kansas alone went for Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kansas handed former Vice President Richard M. Nixon a 54.84% to 34.72% statewide victory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nationally former Alabama Governor George Wallace, known as <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the 20th Century's most influential loser, ran on the American Independent ticket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Kansas he was on the ballot as Conservative and garnered 10.19% of the Kansas vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E. Harold Munn and the Prohibition Party ended last with 0.25% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In 1972 Republicans and Richard Nixon had a landslide victory winning all but the District of Columbia and Massachusetts. Nixon beat South Dakota's Democratic Senator George McGovern 67.66% to 29.50% in Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Schmitz earned 2.38% of the vote for the Conservative Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E. Harold Munn and the Prohibition Party ended last with 0.46% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">1976.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the Watergate scandal President Nixon resigned as President.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>President Ford pardoned President Nixon, had a propensity for falling down, and in the debate with Carter said that Poland was not behind the Iron Curtain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, it was close and Carter beat Ford while losing Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ford and his running mate, favorite son Robert F. Dole, earned 52.49% of the vote to Carter's 44.94%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wisconsin's anti war Eugene McCarthy, whose 1968 New Hampshire primary victory led to L.B.J. withdrawing from the race, ran as an Independent and got 1.38% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservative author Thomas Anderson ran on the American Independent Party ticket and got 0.49% of the Kansas vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Roger MacBride was the nominee of the Libertarian Party and ran in Kansas as an Independent, getting 0.37% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In 1968 it was Ronald Reagan vs. Jimmy Carter, and it was barely a contest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carter had been badly wounded in the primary by Massachusetts Democratic Senator Teddy Kennedy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reagan dismissed the President in the debates with a series of "well, there you go again," remarks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Iran had taken the American embassy hostage and the attempted rescue mission was botched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kansas, like most of America, handed the White House over to the Gipper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reagan took every Kansas county except Wyandotte, the margin was 57.85% to Carter's 33.29%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Former Republican Congressman John B. Anderson ran as an Independent and got 6.96% of the Kansas vote. The Libertarian ticket was Edward Clark and David Koch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, that David Koch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got 1.48% of the vote in Kansas.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Reagan's 1984 reelection against former Vice President Walter F. Mondale was a landslide victory with only the District of Columbia and Minnesota, giving their Democratic favorite son, going against the tide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Kansas Regan beat Mondale <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>66.27% to 32.60%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bob Richards ran on the Conservative ticket getting 0.35% and David Bergland and the Libertarians received 0.33%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dennis Serrette ran as an Independent getting 0.25% of the Kansas vote while the Prohibition Party placed last with Earl Dodge and 0.21% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In 1988 Reagan's Vice President, George H.W. Bush, defeated former Massachusetts Democratic Governor Mike Dukakis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dukakis won Ellis County, Wyandotte County, and Crawford County.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bush took the balance of the state besting Dukakis 55.79% to 42.56%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Congressman Ron Paul was the Libertarian Party's nominee and ran in Kansas as an Independent getting 1.26% of the Kansas vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lenora Fulani ran nationally on the New Alliance Party ticket and was an Independent in the Kansas election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fulani was the first woman and the first African American to achieve ballot access in all fifty states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Kansas she got 0.38% of the vote.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">1992 brought America Bill Clinton, the Democrat, who defeated George H.W. Bush's try for a second term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bush beat Clinton in Kansas 38.88 to 33.74% with H. Ross Perot coming in third with 26.99%. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perot ran as an Independent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libertarian Andre Marou came in fourth with 0.37%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four persons split 179 write in votes for 0.02% of all ballots cast.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1996 Bill Clinton won reelection, Bob Dole was on the Republican ticket, and H. Ross Perot stayed in the game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kansas went for favorite son Robert F. Dole over Bill Clinton 54.29% to 36.08% with Perot 8.62% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harry Browne ran as a Libertarian getting 0.42% and Howard Phillips running nationally on the U.S. Taxpayers Party, and as an Independent in Kansas, got 0.33% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were 2,681 write in votes accounting for 0.25% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The largest share of those went to Natural Law Party candidates John Hagelin, 1,655 votes, followed by Ralph Nader with 914 votes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Charles Collins, from Florida, ran as an Independent with the endorsement of disgraced ex-Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mecham's group <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Constitutionally Unified Republic for Everybody, or C.U.R.E.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Collins came in last with 112 write in votes for 0.01% of the total.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">2000 brings Bush v. Gore and the tightest race since the 1896 squeaker between Hayes and Tilden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ralph Nader ran on the Green Party, Pat Buchanan ran on the Reform Party, Harry Browne on the Libertarian Party, John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party ran as an Independent in Kansas, and Howard Phillips ran for the Constitution Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bush beat Gore in Kansas 58.04% to 37.24%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nader took 3.37%, Buchanan got 0.69%, Browne ended up with 0.42%, Hagelin garnered 0.13%, and last was Phillips with 0.12%.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 2004 George W. Bush won reelection and carried all but two Kansas counties, Douglas and Wyandotte. Bush beat the Democratic candidate, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, in Kansas 62.00% to 36.62%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ralph Nader got 0.79% for the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reform Party, Michael Badnarick earned 0.34% of the vote for the Libertarians, and lesser candidates and write in votes accounted for another 0.25% of the vote.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Four years ago it was Republican Senator John McCain against Democratic Senator Barack Obama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obama carried the nation but lost Kansas 56.48% to 41.55%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obama won only three Kansas counties, Crawford, Douglas, and Wyandotte.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ralph Nader was an Independent getting 0.85% of the Kansas vote. The Libertarian, Bob Barr, got 0.54% of the statewide vote. Charles O. Baldwin from the Reform Party earned 0.33% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four others split 3,002 votes for 0.25% of the vote.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-35382841074028154602012-02-02T09:46:00.001-06:002012-02-02T10:07:18.869-06:00RECALL BROWNBACK! Violating KOMA also violates his OATH OF OFFICE!<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Governor Brownback's brain trust came up with the dull notion that Brownback, not being a "body or agency of the state" can't violate KOMA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hopefully<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kansas Democrats serving in the Legislature will knock that slow hanging pitch in the sweet zone right out of the park.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">The "Kansas Legislator Briefing Book 2012" page R-1-1, and available online at <a href="http://skyways.lib.ks.us/ksleg/KLRD/Publications/2012Briefs/R-1-KansasOpenMeetingsAct.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">http://skyways.lib.ks.us/ksleg/KLRD/Publications/2012Briefs/R-1-KansasOpenMeetingsAct.pdf</span></a>, is the perfect starting point for the inquisitive legislator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">At the bottom third of the page is a citation to a case called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Memorial Hospital Association </i>v. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Knutson</i>, 239 Kan. 663, 669 (1986).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is important because the holding reminds us that the law is to be liberally construed with narrow exceptions. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">The Attorney General's office weighed in on KOMA in 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That document is available at <a href="http://ag.ks.gov/docs/publications/kansas-open-meetings-act-(koma)-guidelines.PDF"><span style="color: blue;">http://ag.ks.gov/docs/publications/kansas-open-meetings-act-(koma)-guidelines.PDF</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the Attorney General's office " Social gatherings are not necessarily subject to the KOMA; if there is no discussion of the business of the body, one element of a meeting is "missing.".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have any questions about KOMA turn to this document, it is a well written, exhaustive, legal memorandum.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Lisa J. Johnson, the Franklin County, Kansas County Administrator / Counselor perfectly detailed the intersection of KOMA and the social gathering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her remarks are online at <a href="http://www.franklincoks.org/commission/agendas_2008/10_06_2008_studysession2.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.franklincoks.org/commission/agendas_2008/10_06_2008_studysession2.pdf</span></a>, where she says "Social gatherings or conferences for items of general discussion are not meetings so long as there is no discussion of the specific business of the County Commission."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She too relies on the previously cited Attorney General's opinion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Now on to the preposterous nitpicking notion that not being a "state body or agency" the Governor is somehow above KOMA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only is Emperor Brownback's brain trust<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>conservatively construing KOMA while making wide exceptions for him in the law, they forgot the Constitution of the State of Kansas. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Ladies and Gentlemen, I direct your attention to the Kansas Constitution Article 1 §3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The supreme executive power of this state shall be vested in a governor, who shall be responsible for the enforcement of the laws of this state."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Now we have two questions to ask, the first is what does the term "supreme executive power mean" and the second asks if Governor Brownback in violating KOMA breached his legal duty abdicating his responsibility to enforce KOMA.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Professor Saikrishna Prakash, writing in the University of Illinois Law Review, 2003 U. Ill. L. Rev. 703, online at <a href="http://illinoislawreview.org/article/the-essential-meaning-of-executive-power/"><span style="color: blue;">http://illinoislawreview.org/article/the-essential-meaning-of-executive-power/</span></a> succinctly tells us that the phrase executive power as it relates to the head of state, for America the President and for Kansas the Governor, that each "state body or agency" is an extension of the Governor's supreme executive power.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Professor Prakash's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Essential Meaning of Executive Power</i>, says:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Moreover, the executive power also enable the president to control other governmental officers who execute federal law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because only the president has the executive power, others who execute the law derive their authority to execute not from the statutes that create their offices but from the president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This feature of the executive power reveals why the president is properly referred to as the chief executive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other officials who execute the law are "executive" officers by virtue of their law execution role and because they are the chief executive's means of executing the law</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Our inquiry into supreme executive authority necessarily leads to the definition of the word "governor" and to this I turn to the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. The dictionary says:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>n. A person who governs, especially:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>n. The chief executive of a state in the United States.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>n. An official appointed to govern a colony or territory.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>n. A member of a governing body.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>n. The manager or administrative head of an organization, business, or institution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia goes on to say:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">n. The person invested with the supreme executive power in a state or community; specifically, as a personal title, the chief magistrate of a state or province: as, the governor of Connecticut; the governor of Newfoundland. As a title, abbreviated Gov.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Both references are online at <a href="http://www.wordnik.com/words/governor"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.wordnik.com/words/governor</span></a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">A liberal interpretation of KOMA will find that Sam Brownback, by virtue of his Oath of Office, is the head of each and every state agency and board, and those agencies and boards derive their legal authority from the executive power of the Governor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That the drafters of the legislation did not conceive of any Kansas Governor behaving so arrogantly does not mean the law will not apply to Sam Brownback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The law, KOMA, will be liberally construed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Governor most certainly can be called to task for his secret meetings at Cedar Crest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Again, don't forget that the </span>Governor, by virtue of his Oath of Office, epitomizes each and every state agency and board.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Beyond KOMA is the Governor's duty to be responsible for the enforcement of the laws of Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How is possible for the Governor to exculpate himself for the violations of KOMA when it is he who set up the secret meetings of legislators at Cedar Crest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes two to tango, and Senate President Morris informs us that it was Sam Brownback who began advocating KPERS issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now the Governor claims, somewhat unbelievably, that all the legislators in attendance were warned about KOMA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's odd, that directly conflicts the statement by Senator Morris.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also odd for the Governor to say he warned the legislators about KOMA and then began his advocacy thus enticing his Republican colleagues into violating KOMA. Why is the Governor abdicating his duty to be responsible for the enforcement of KOMA.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">By having these secret meetings disguised as social gatherings, by initiating the violations of KOMA through direct advocacy with the majority of the committees of jurisdiction Sam Brownback makes a mockery of his oath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brownback is not being responsible for the laws of Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The grounds for recall require that the official being recalled has violated the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brownback violated the law when he violated KOMA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brownback violated the law when he violated his Constitutional Oath of Office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">RECALL BROWNBACK!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-38559954145132242702012-01-31T06:41:00.004-06:002012-01-31T09:56:02.076-06:00RECALL SAM BROWNBACK FROM OFFICE<div style="text-align: justify;">Kansas Senate President, Republican Steve Morris of Hugoton, is an ethical man who spilled the beans on Governor Brownback violating Kansas's Open Meetings Law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Sam did this he crossed the "Misconduct in Office" line making him eligible for recall under Article 43 of the Kansas Statutes. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">As reported in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Capital-Journal</i> online edition, @ <a href="http://cjonline.com/news/2012-01-30/morris-i-warned-about-koma-violations"><span style="color: blue;">http://cjonline.com/news/2012-01-30/morris-i-warned-about-koma-violations</span></a>, Senator Morris attended a "legislative dinner" at the Executive Mansion, Cedar Crest, on January 9th.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also present were members of the Senate KPERS Select Committee and the House Pensions and Benefits Committee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the "dinner" Brownback began advocating, saying the committees had to "do something" about KPERS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Senator Morris quickly raised the red flag warning, he said "We can't do this."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Morris was right. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an amazing display of "now you see me, now you don't" the Governor's spokesperson, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sherriene Jones-Sontag, said:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the dinners are "private" and don’t violate KOMA because they are "social gatherings." <br />
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Of course they are "social gatherings" they are the "social gatherings" where Brownback wants to scheme the methodology of his extreme agenda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> And that makes them meetings which should be open to the public. </span>If they were just "social gatherings" the Governor would have said something like, "Oh KPERS, yes, when we get back to work on Monday we can schedule a meeting about getting something done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the way how is the family."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that wasn't close to the conversation reported by the President of the Kansas Senate.<br />
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Sam Brownback has tried to sell a lot of crazy ideas to Kansas since becoming Governor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you don't recall him because he wants to tax the poor and help the rich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don't recall him because he wants to give wealthy school districts the ability to raise money for their schools and your kids and grandkids don't get squat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don't recall him for any of his bad ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is politics and he is entitled to have all the bad ideas he wants.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Secrecy, the deliberate assault on transparency, and stealth government followed up by cover-up remarks from an official spokesperson?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now you have conduct "impacting " the Governor's ability to perform the duties of his office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Come on Democrats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is time to recall Sam Brownback.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">What does it take to recall Sam Brownback?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have to read Chapter 25 Article 43 of the Kansas Statutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's K.S.A. 25-4301 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">et seq</i>.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
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<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/statute/025_000_0000_chapter/025_043_0000_article/"><span style="color: blue;">Article 43. - RECALL OF ELECTED OFFICIALS</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in;" valign="top"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/statute/025_000_0000_chapter/025_043_0000_article/025_043_0003_section/025_043_0003_k/"><span style="color: blue;">Next</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in;" valign="top"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;"><a href="http://kslegislature.org/li/m/statute/025_000_0000_chapter/025_043_0000_article/025_043_0002_section/025_043_0002_k.pdf"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><span style="color: blue;"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas> <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"> <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"> </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></span></v:shapetype><v:shape alt="http://kslegislature.org/li/m/images/pdf.png" href="http://kslegislature.org/li/m/statute/025_000_0000_chapter/025_043_0000_article/025_043_0002_section/025_043_0002_k.pdf" id="Picture_x0020_1" o:button="t" o:spid="_x0000_i1026" style="height: 12pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 17.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75"><span style="color: blue;"> <v:imagedata o:title="pdf" src="file:///C:\Users\Grandpa\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.png"> </v:imagedata></span></v:shape></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 19.85pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman2","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">25-4302.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman1","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman2","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Grounds for recall.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman1","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (a) Grounds for recall are conviction of a felony, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">misconduct in office</b> or failure to perform duties prescribed by law. No recall submitted to the voters shall be held void because of the insufficiency of the grounds, application, or petition by which the submission was procured.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 19.85pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman1","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(b) As used in this section, the term <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">"misconduct in office" means a violation of law by the officer that impacts the officer's ability to perform the official duties of the office.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/statute/075_000_0000_chapter/075_043_0000_article/"><span style="color: blue;">Article 43. - PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in;" valign="top"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/statute/075_000_0000_chapter/075_043_0000_article/075_043_0017a_section/075_043_0017a_k/"><span style="color: blue;">Next</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in;" valign="top"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;"><a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/m/statute/075_000_0000_chapter/075_043_0000_article/075_043_0017_section/075_043_0017_k.pdf"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><v:shape alt="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/m/images/pdf.png" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/m/statute/075_000_0000_chapter/075_043_0000_article/075_043_0017_section/075_043_0017_k.pdf" id="Picture_x0020_3" o:button="t" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" style="height: 12pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 17.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75"><span style="color: blue;"> <v:imagedata o:title="pdf" src="file:///C:\Users\Grandpa\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.png"> </v:imagedata></span></v:shape></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 19.85pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman2","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">75-4317.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman1","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman2","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Open meetings declared policy of state; citation of act.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman1","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (a) In recognition of the fact that a representative government is dependent upon an informed electorate, it is declared to be the policy of this state that meetings for the conduct of governmental affairs and the transaction of governmental business be open to the public.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 19.85pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman1","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(b) It is declared hereby to be against the public policy of this state for any such meeting to be adjourned to another time or place in order to subvert the policy of open public meetings as pronounced in subsection (a).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 19.85pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman1","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(c) K.S.A. 75-4317 through 75-4320a shall be known and may be cited as the open meetings act.<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="stat5fnumber1"><strong>75-4317a.</strong></span> <span class="stat5fcaption1"><strong>Meeting defined.</strong></span> As used in the open meetings act, "meeting" means any gathering or assembly in person or through the use of a telephone or any other medium for interactive communication by a majority of the membership of a body or agency subject to this act for the purpose of discussing the business or affairs of the body or agency.</span></div>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-72706764067712087042012-01-30T06:29:00.000-06:002012-01-30T06:29:09.762-06:00KANSAS TRIES A SNEAKY REPEAL OF FRACKING REGULATORY FRAMEWORK<div style="text-align: justify;">Kansas House Bill Number 2526, introduced by the Committee on Energy and Utilities, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is a piece of legislative art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the face it looks like it merely gives the Kansas Corporations Commissions additional authority to "promulgate rules and regulations necessary for the supervision and disclosure of any well on which a hydraulic fracturing treatment is performed." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">That was Section One of the bill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Section Two is only one sentence long, and threatens to dismantle all the regulatory protocol which the Corporations Commissions has written, or may in the future write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Section Two says " K.S.A. 55-152 is hereby repealed."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">The way this bill is drafted reminds of the peanut under the shell game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now you see it now you don't.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>K.S.A. 55-152 is important because it gives local groundwater districts the power to develop more stringent controls than the state requires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It says, in pertinent part: <o:p> </o:p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: justify;">Any such rules and regulations relating to wells providing cathodic protection to prevent corrosion to lines shall not preempt existing standards and policies adopted by the board of directors of a groundwater management district if such standards and policies provide protection of fresh water to a degree equal to or Any such rules and regulations relating to wells providing cathodic protection to prevent corrosion to lines shall not preempt existing standards and policies adopted by the board of directors of a groundwater management district if such standards and policies provide protection of fresh water to a degree equal to or greater than that provided by such rules and regulations. greater than that provided by such rules and regulations.</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><o:p> Lacking statutory authority to promulgate rules protecting the environment will have the effect of legislative repeals of the existing rules. This sets Kansas on a course of certain environmental catastrophe. Repealing K.S.A. 55-152 is a very bad idea. </o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">No doubt in my mind exists that the whole committee did not unanimously agree to this bill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a problem with the Kansas Legislature where legislators don't want to own their bills. Instead they take cover from the committee of origin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">The Chair of the Committee on Energy and Utilities is Dodge City Republican Representative Carl Holmes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Vice Chair is Fredonia Republican Forrest Knox.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Ranking Member is Topeka Democrat <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Annie Kuether.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The members of the committee are Ulysses Republican Steve Alford, Leawood Republican Rob Bruchman, Topeka Republican Mike Burgess, Wichita Democrat Nile Dillmore, Wichita Democrat Gail Finney, Kansas City Democrat Stan Frownfelter, Wichita Republican Phil Hermanson, Dighton Republican Don Hineman, Garden City Republican Reynaldo Mesa, Parsons Republican Richard Proehl, Inman Republican Don Schroeder, Pretty Prairie Republican Joe Seiwert, Mission Democrat Mike Slattery, Lawrence Republican Tom Sloan, Overland Park Republican Greg Smith, and Clay Center Republican Vern Swanson.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Whether or not your Representative is on the </span>Committee on Energy and Utilities, let your Representative know that you oppose repeal of K.S.A. 55-152. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7608511744801162009.post-76017401289736566442012-01-27T08:56:00.004-06:002012-01-27T09:11:28.092-06:00KRIS KOBACH - NO VOTER FRAUD IN KANSAS - PHOTO IDENTIFICATION LAW - & INTELLECTUAL FRAUD<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Let's be clear, voting is a fundamental right. The Legal Information Institute, <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fundamental_right"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fundamental_right</span></a>, provides this discussion of what the term "fundamental right" entails:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: justify;">Fundamental rights are a group of rights that have been recognized by the Supreme Court as requiring a high degree of protection from government encroachment. These rights are specifically identified in the Constitution (especially in the Bill of Rights), or have been found under Due Process. Laws limiting these rights generally must pass strict scrutiny to be upheld as constitutional. Examples of fundamental rights not specifically listed in the Constitution include the right to marry and the right to privacy, which includes a right to contraception and the right to interstate travel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In constitutional law, certain rights protected by the due process or equal protection clause that cannot be regulated unless the regulating law passes a rigorous set of criteria (strict scrutiny). Fundamental rights, as defined by the Supreme Court, include various rights of privacy (such as marriage and contraception), the right to interstate travel, and the right to vote. [Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.]</div></blockquote><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach waged a campaign premised on the need to curtail voter fraud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His campaign represented the height of intellectual fraud as he sold a bogus argument to a willing Republican electorate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I call it intellectual fraud, which Reference.com defines as that which "signifies falsification of a position taken or implied by an author or speaker, within a book, controversy or debate, or an idea deceptively presented to hide known logical weaknesses."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See, <a href="http://www.reference.com/browse/fraud"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.reference.com/browse/fraud</span></a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Kris Kobach falsified the position that there was widespread voter fraud in Kansas in his 2010 with Secretary of State Chris Biggs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kobach deceptively presented his idea which he knew, or should have known, had logical weaknesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Kobach's intellectual fraud did not stop with his false campaign against Biggs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yes, I said false campaign because, as cited by the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Osawatomie Journal</i> this past Wednesday, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> reported that "...Kansas had only one prosecution for voter fraud in the last six years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But because of that vast threat to Kansas democracy, an estimated 620,000 Kansas residents who lack government ID now stand to lose their right to vote."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Kobach's campaign said the photo identification was needed to assure the fairness of our elections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Denying 600,000 Kansans the right to vote is fair?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now the logical weaknesses come home to roost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are one of the 600,000 who live in either Miami County or Linn County <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you cannot simply go to the office of the County Clerk and get your free state issued photo identification.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have to go to Olathe, Johnson County, Kansas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Think about that, you don't have a driver's license, don't need a driver's license, don't want a driver's license, but in order to vote you have to go north a county or two to get a free state issued photo identification card. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">That card isn't going to be free if you need to present a certified copy of your birth certificate, which you do not have, to get the state issued photo identification card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is why Kobach's law is an end run around the 24th Amendment which banned poll taxes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Now Kobach is getting all huffy blaming State Senator Kelly Kutala [D - Kansas City] for his failure, as Secretary of State, to shepherd his bills through the Kansas Legislature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is another problem with the state issued photo identification card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story is fully reported by the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Topeka Capitol Journal</i> online edition <a href="http://www.blogger.com/@%20http:/cjonline.com/news/2012-01-26/kobach-blames-kultala-free-id-flap"><span style="color: blue;">@ http://cjonline.com/news/2012-01-26/kobach-blames-kultala-free-id-flap</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">The article says that "workers in the Bureau of Vital Statistics, overseen by KDHE, were under the impression that they were to continue charging for all birth certificates until 2013."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kobach thought they were going to be "free" this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kobach didn't exercise due diligence and follow up on his own legislation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what happens when the Secretary of State is more interested in political fanfare than the orderly administration of his office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And didn't Chris Biggs warn us about this?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">More logical weaknesses in Kobach's photo identification come from what you'd expect the Ivy League educated Law Professor to understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either he doesn't or he doesn't care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When a state is going to regulate a fundamental right it must do so in the least restrictive manner possible, it must do so only when there is a compelling state interest so to do, it must narrowly tailor its statute to achieve compliance with that compelling state interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kobach hasn't done any of this. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">There is no voter fraud of statistically significance in Kansas. As the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> reported in the previous six years there has been only one prosecution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since Kobach took office he found no widespread voter irregularity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point Kobach said there were 67 cases, then it dropped to 41 cases, and no matter how few instances he can cite there have been zero prosecutions since he took office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Had Kobach stumbled onto even a small cluster voter fraud cases, he would be strutting around Kansas like a banty rooster. He didn't, he ain't.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>If there is no voter fraud, there is no compelling state interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there is no compelling state interest then this statute needs to be struck down in federal court as an unlawful interference with the right to vote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Kobach's statute is not providing the least restrictive means nor is it narrowly tailored to achieve the nonexistent compelling state interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kobach's statute requires the citizen to bear the expense of obtaining a certified copy of his or her birth certificate before getting the "free" photo identification card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kobach's statute requires citizens to travel out of county to find a state office capable of issuing the "free" photo identification card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">The law, if it were needed - and it is not- could have made it easier on the citizen to register to vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why, if you don't have your birth certificate you can go online and get one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That costs between $20 and $30.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cost aside for a moment, what happens when you ask the internet site for a birth certificate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That web site verifies that you are you by having you answer a series of question to which only you will know the answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You answer those questions correctly and you pay and you get the certified copy of the birth certificate shipped by USPS, or UPS, or FedEx directly to your door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">So why go through the middleman?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isn't the least restrictive means to give all the County Clerks and DMV offices access to that data base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That way when a citizen shows up at the DMV, the County Courthouse, or its Annex the county or state employee can log on and verify, with the same degree of certitude that gets a person a birth certificate from a web site, that the citizen is who the citizen says they are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And doesn't it make sense in many of Kansas' rural counties to let local officials look across the counter and see their neighbors, and knowing that their neighbors are who they say they are expedite this process. And yes, the State of Kansas should bear this cost to correct Kobach's problem which doesn't exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">If there was an issue with voter fraud in Kansas, and there is not, Kobach purports himself to be a man smart enough and educated sufficiently to craft legislation that is more Constitutionally compatible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His failure so to do makes me think his intellectual fraud runs deep.</div><br />
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</div>Xobekimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13973381691719755451noreply@blogger.com0