Click for Moore's full letter to supporters

In an email to supporters today, Stephene Moore called herself a, “moderate and fiscal conservative.” What exactly that means, of course, is anyone’s guess.

It’s no secret that her husband has been anything but a fiscal conservative after supporting government take overs of every industry you can think of, from the financial sector to automobiles to our health care system. In an article on PrimeBuzz of the Kansas City Star, Stephene stated that she basically agreed with her husband’s votes, noting only that she wanted more oversight (control) of the bank bailout bill, leaving the reader to postulate that she would have supported such a bailout if more oversight had been included. What exactly is “moderate” or “fiscally conservative” about more taxes and more bailouts isn’t explained in her letter.

In this year’s election there are numerous candidates calling themselves “moderate” and “fiscally conservative” when their record reflects something much different. The fact is if voters want the change they thought they were getting in 2008, they must look past the buzz words certain candidates love to throw around. And that includes “conservative” that apparently every Republican candidate liked to call themselves before August, again many times in spite of a very liberal record.

Now, as far as how one can be a “moderate” and “fiscal conservative,” I’m at a loss. It would seem the label machine at Moore’s campaign headquarters seems to be working overtime.

The primary race in Kansas’ Third Congressional District just got a lot more crowded with Dennis Moore announcing he’s quitting rather than face Republican opposition.

You can vote for your choice for a Republican nominee in our poll on the right. We’ve tried to list any candidate running or somewhat seriously considering running.

We’ll announce the results at a later date.

Liberty Republic will be hosting a free premiere at The Refuge.

• Where: The Refuge, 135th and Flint St., Overland Park, KS
• When: Doors open 6:15pm Sunday, October 18, 2009, film starts at 7pm
• Cost: FREE!!!

There are also premieres at the same day and time in Wichita and Topeka. Click here for more details about those premieres.

Democrat Dennis Moore recently attended a liberal fund raiser with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Fwank (D-Mass.) What would “Blue Dog” Dennis Moore have in common with liberal Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank?

Whatever they have in common, it must mean a lot to Dennis. After all, why else would Moore risk walking right out on the street in crime ridden Washington D.C.?

Say what you will about Barney Frank, but the guy got Dennis Moore to do something his constituents couldn’t; come out in public.

Dennis, you’re a brave, brave soul. Don’t you know how crime ridden the streets of D.C. are? I thought you were a former district prosecutor? I mean, we’re just really concerned about your safety here. Don’t you know there were just “60,000″ right wing wackos in D.C.? What if a couple of them stayed behind? What then Dennis???

I guess safety is all relative depending on how many Benjamin’s are at the meeting.

What a joke.

In fact, the only guy I can think of that’s more of a political joke than Dennis Moore right now is Sun Publisher Steve Rose. He announced today that he’s running against Dennis Moore in 2010, even though he’s endorsed him in every election since 1998! I’m in disbelief that Steve’s friends don’t care enough about him to tell him he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in h*ll of winning.

Somebody send Steve a memo that only Republican’s can vote for him in a primary. And unlike him, a majority of them don’t belong to the country club.

Steve’s fundamental problem is the consistent amount of Republicans that have voted against Dennis Moore since he was elected. Granted there wasn’t enough of them to defeat Moore, but they’ve been clear and consistent in their distaste for the guy. Why would they now vote for a registered Republican Dennis Moore mini-me?

Good luck Steve. You’re gonna need it with the book of campaign material you’ve written for your primary opponents.

The most demonstrative pro-abortion governor in the history of the United States has been selected by President Obama to become the Health and Human Services Secretary. Even though I am excited to have our Governor “out of Dodge” due to her horrible tax and spend policies as well as liberal thoughts on energy, I have great concern for the impact she will have in our nation regarding health care.

As HHS secretary, Sebelius will have a major impact in crafting a health care plans that could cover abortions with taxpayer funds or require insurance companies to cover abortions in their plans. Sebelius could also, if confirmed by the Senate, issue new regulations overturning the protections President Bush put in place that protect pro-life doctors and medical centers.

Sebelius is best known for her close relationship with late-term abortionist George Tiller, who has escaped prosecution and accountability on many occasions until just recently when a Wichita judge ordered the green light that his criminal case should be tried.

As Kansas governor for 6 years now, Sebelius’ lax standards has caused criminal cases to go uninvestigated. She has also dominated liberal campaigns with tainted abortion money through her political allies, to whom Tiller has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars not only to these allies directly, but to Sebelius’ own “Blue Stem” Fund. Her position favoring abortion is so radical and extreme that Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City called her to stop receiving communion until she disowns her support for the “serious moral evil” of abortion.

Governor Sebelius vetoed a bill last April that the legislature approved that would have strengthened the state’s limits on late-term abortions. That followed by a year her veto of a bill requiring explicit medical reasons for a late abortion, which was preceded by vetoing other pro-life legislation in 2006, 2005 and 2003. She has appointed pro-abortion politicians to posts and committees that oversee agencies that investigate the violation of Kansas Laws on abortion. And she has allowed late term abortions to continue even though Kansas Law specifically does not allow the horrible procedure.

Sebelius has had secret fundraisers with Tiller and Planned Parenthood, many times at the governor’s mansion, which she failed to officially report as a campaign event. Once again using Kansas ’ taxpayer money to promote and honor abortionist and abortion related industries and to raise money for her or her friends campaign coffers.

The good news is that now the national spotlight is on Sebelius and her illegal activities will be investigated and looked at from people across the nation. They will find out that Sebelius political machine makes Chicago politics look like a day at grammar school. Sebelius is cunning and liberal. She is far from the Blue Dog Democrat that the drive by media portrays. And her day in the Obama spotlight will provide the nation with a glimpse of the embarrassment we Kansan’s call, Governor!

As HHS secretary her damage to our country’s health services will be significant and her abortion power unyielding. More abortion parties and fundraisers to come!

Except this time the event location will be 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue !

While I wasn’t able to be at the rally in Overland Park today, I was with you in spirit! Meadowlark has a photo journal up about the rally.

There’s also a great piece on KDOT’s new claim that 10,000 jobs will be created with our state’s share of “spendulus.” In short, many states are simply taking the average yearly wages of a construction worker and dividing it into the total amount of money they get, leaving virtually nothing to pay for construction materials and other costs.

I’d further point to today’s Capital-Journal article, where $2.5 million will be spent to buy new buses for Topeka transit.

That earmark for Topeka comes from $16 million set aside for urban transit, with $6.6 million going to Wichita, $2.8 million to Johnson County, $1.9 million for Wyandotte County and $1.9 million to Lawrence. A total of $14 million is going to rural transit projects, but those recipients haven’t been determined.

How new buses will create jobs is beyond me.

The Johnson County bloggers at Red County have a nice list posted of what our children and grandchildren will be paying for in the years to come.

I’ll share some of my favorites:

• $1 billion for NASA
• $2 billion to develop advanced batteries for hybrid cars
• $650 million for the digital TV converter box coupon program (because reality TV spurs the economy)
• $3.7 billion to conduct “green” renovations on military bases (I thought they already wore camo?)
• $1 billion for the 2010 Census (to count just over 305 million people)
• $3.4 billion for fossil energy research (Remember folks, it’s the green Democrats that voted for that…)
• $98 million earmarked for a polar icebreaker (this one just puzzles me, couldn’t we just wait for ‘em to melt?)
• $500 million for forest health and wildfire prevention
• $25 million for the Smithsonian Institution
• $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts

Finally, my ultimate favorite two:

• $10 million for urban canals
• $290 million for flood prevention

If I have to explain why that’s funny, we’re in real trouble.

Nostimulus.com surpassed half a million signatures in the waning hours of the spendulus debate, but it made no difference to the Democrats or three “moderate” Republican Senators. The site is still up if you just feel a need to sign it. I’m sure AFP will keep ownership of the domain name. I have a feeling this won’t be the last “stimulus.”

During the House and Senate debate I had a nightmarish flashback to the last time a legislative body voted on a massive piece of legislation without reading it.

Of course, everyone by now knows what a cash cow state-owned casinos turned out to be for Kansas. And not allowing legislative oversight in the bill, that was an excellent idea. I can only imagine what American citizens will learn about this spending bill over the next year or two.

U.S. House rules state that all conference committee reports must be made available for 3 calendar days before a vote to allow Representatives to read the bill. The Democrat controlled House passed a special resolution to waive that rule so a vote on the 1100 page bill could be taken not even 24 hours after it’s final draft was made available.

Democrat Reps and Senators must be very fast readers.

I can think of a few high points though. Every Representative and all but three Republican Senators voted against the bill. What a dramatic return to conservative principles. It’s certainly refreshing to see that most of our Republican officials intimately understand what lost them the election and what they need to do to begin to win again.

Imagine if Republicans had acted like Republicans several years ago.

Other Kansas spendulus blog posts:

Kansas Meadowlark – “‘Yes We Can’ Pass $787 Billion ‘Stimulus’ Without Anyone in Congress Reading the Bill”
Red County JoCo – The short list of your grandchildren’s debt
Wichita Liberty – NoStimulus.com Effort Crosses 200,000 Petitions
Wichita Liberty – Tim Phillips of AFP explains NoStimulus.com
StimulusWatch.org – Lists all Kansas Stimulus projects

In a post entitled, “Plenty of reasons to be concerned about Proposition K“, Brownlee claims that Prop K may not be good for areas that don’t appreciate in value as quickly as others.

…it also could significantly benefit wealthier, growing neighborhoods while disadvantaging homeowners in poorer areas, because some neighborhoods and cities have much higher property appreciation rates than 2 percent.

Like many arguments that are made by the left, the problem seems valid on the surface until further investigation is conducted. Such is the case here. The very problem Brownlee claims to want to avoid has already propagated itself through the system.

Property tax valuation changes from 1997 to 2007 by county courtesy of the Kansas Meadowlark

For Brownlee’s argument to be valid, he should show areas in the state where property tax valuations have risen below the 2% per year mandated by Prop K. The map to the right provided courtesy of Kansas Meadowlark shows that overall, property tax valuations have risen by significant amounts over a ten year period from 1997 to 2007.

Unfortunately for Brownlee, 104 of 105 counties in Kansas saw rises in tax valuations greater than 2% per year over the specified ten year period. This means that had Prop K been passed in 1997, taxpayers in every county but one in Kansas would have benefited from the 2% per year rise in tax valuations.

The one exception to the rule is Coffey County where property values have actually gone down according to the county appraisers office. Coffey County is where Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant is located which provides a significant portion of property tax revenues.

Further, Brownlee ignores a critical component of Prop K, that valuations rise at a set 2% as long as improvements are not made. It seems obvious to me that if an area is rising in value quicker than another, it’s due to property improvements and new buildings. This is accounted for in Prop K and Brownlee’s argument ignores this.

Brownlee continued:

Over time, this proposed system could result in significant disparities and a disconnect from actual market values, thus likely violating the Kansas Constitution’s requirement of a “uniform and equal basis of valuation.”

Again, this statement ignores what is happening with valuations already. Johnson County, the fastest growing county in the state, saw a rise in values of 111.8%. It’s easy to argue that Johnson County certainly has been a leader in building improvements that raise property values in comparison to other counties in the state. And yet counties such as Wabaunsee (116.3%) and Osage (123.9%) saw a higher increase in values than Johnson. Disparity is already present.

Like many arguments made by the left, we’re led to believe that an idea must be rejected outright based on the idea that it may harm someone somewhere in the future while ignoring the vast majority that are currently being harmed by a defective system.

Prop K is not a perfect system by any means, no system of taxation will ever be perfect or viewed as completely fair by everyone, but it is certainly a large improvement over the current valuation system in Kansas. Certainly it is not something that should be rejected outright by baseless, thoughtless “problems” that already exist and are currently harming the vast majority of property taxpayers in Kansas.

Now you know how I feel.

I began with the Kansas City Star’s Primebuzz blog, then I moved to the Lawrence Journal-World, The Topeka Capital Journal and others. And it couldn’t have been more plain from the headlines I was reading…man, what a beating Phill Kline took today.

For instance, I began with this headline, “KS court blisters Kline” where I was told, “It’s one of the most blistering opinions delivered in memory, according to The Star’s legal reporter.”

Then I moved to the Journal-World, “Supreme Court blisters Kline, orders return of abortion clinic records.” The first paragraph said it all, “The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday ordered Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline to turn over copies of patients’ medical records from an abortion clinic he is prosecuting.”

KSN in Wichita, “The Kansas Supreme Court orders Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline to turn over abortion patients’ medical records.”

As I continued on my ‘mainstream’ media tour, it was more of the same.

Finally, I turned to my emailed headline from Kansas Liberty, “Despite opinion’s scathing language, DA Kline can keep copies of abortion records.”

Based on the scathing language directed toward Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline in an opinion issued by the Kansas Supreme Court this morning, it might seem easy to conclude that Kline not only suffered a legal defeat, but that he disgraced the offices in which he served during an investigation of Planned Parenthood.

But, cutting through the criticism and innuendo contained in the majority opinion, written by Justice Carol A. Beier, it appears the ruling actually favored Kline on the law.

Beier wrote: “The above analysis leads us to the conclusion that [Planned Parenthood] and the Attorney General are not entitled to the primary relief they seek. We will not force Kline to disgorge ‘each and every copy’ of the patient records Kline and his subordinates have made ‘and any and all other evidence Kline developed and obtained while he was acting as Attorney General that he took with him to Johnson County’.”

Then, I turned to KAKE Channel 10 from Wichita. What I read there made me think two different rulings from rival courts had been passed down today.

“Supreme Court Denies Contempt Proceedings Against Phill Kline”

The Supreme Court denied an abortion clinic’s petition for contempt proceedings against former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline on Friday, but the court granted other relief and sanctioned Kline for his handling of the clinic’s patient records.

What a difference some perspective gives.

It’s amazing what a loaded headline and a writers slant will do to your understanding of the facts. As I read headlines proclaiming that the records must be “returned” to the AG’s office, I found myself thinking that Kline had lost, the records had to be returned, and the case was over.

It was amazing. I continued to think this even as I read, in story after story, that only copies had to be turned over. It wasn’t a return of records, it was a copy and supply of records.

I have to admit, it never fully sunk in until I got to the Kansas Liberty and KAKE 10 stories.

How many people do you think never got around to reading those articles?

Today isn’t a defeat for Phill Kline. Today is a defeat for a free and responsible press and an informed public.

In fact, if it weren’t for some confusion among conservative JoCo delegates, liberals would have lost. While the Kansas Meadowlark does point out that some tactical errors by liberals could have contributed to their losses for delegates, these alone can’t explain the complete loss by liberals when it comes to delegates.

A switch of just 20 votes for chairman and 12 votes for Vice-Chair would have meant a conservative win.

What hasn’t been talked about much is the complete meltdown of liberals in other parts of the state. No competitive races were seen in Sedgwick County. Conservatives still have control of the second and fourth districts. The same is expected in the first. And now conservatives will keep delegate control in the third as well.

What is important to note is the lack of a ‘unity slate’ from the liberals. When the numbers are against them, they want to power share, but when they think they can win, compromise and sharing don’t seem to be in their vocabulary. The new JoCo leadership needs to keep the past in mind when making decisions over the next two years. Working together needs to be a phrase they repeat often.

Working together is something to be desired, but it has to be desired no matter what the numbers look like, no matter what the year is. That hasn’t been seen in the past.