Policy and Politics
tfk | October 18, 2006Kansans can go to their county clerks' offices today through noon on the Monday before the election and cast an early ballot. Then you don't have to worry about whether you can make it to the polls on election day.
You can still register to vote until the 23rd.
Before you head out to vote, be sure you know who your candidates are for state Legislature. The entire House is up for election, and electing candidates who will stand by the state's commitment to fund schools adequately, to roll back the maintenance backlog at the college and university level of the state educational system. Be…
tfk | October 18, 2006Former Kansas AG Bob Stephan explains why he quit Phill Kline's office:
Stephan said Tuesday he resigned because he was upset by Kline’s strategy of using churches to raise campaign funds.
And he’s particularly upset about an instance where a church made donations to a business owned by Kline’s wife, Deborah.
“When you use your faith to shuttle money into your for-profit corporation, that bothers me. Especially when you are there, certainly giving voice to your faith, but with the credential of being the attorney general,” Stephan said in an interview with the Journal-World.
Kline argues that…
tfk | October 17, 2006The Johnson County Sun is a fairly Republican paper, and its endorsements of incumbent Republicans as Insurance Commissioner, Treasurer and Secretary of State are pro forma. It's endorsement of Don Weiss over John Bacon is far from automatic. The editors clearly thought hard, and came down behind Don Weiss, calling him "by far, the more qualified candidate":
[incumbent John] Bacon is part of the notorious 6-4 Christian conservative majority that has enmeshed the board in distracting controversies such as evolution instruction, sex education and hiring Bob Corkins as education commissioner.…
tfk | October 17, 2006Radar Online assesses the ten stupidest congresscritters. But any such list which doesn't include Senator Ted "made of tubes" Stevens is clearly bogus.
Furthermore, the entire premise misses a vital point. These congresscritters may well be dumb, but what made them deserving of mockery is their public displays of stupidity. Jim Ryun has said things about climate change at least as stupid as what Senator Inhofe has said, and I'd say his ad touting sustainable energy, in which he addresses the camera while gassing up his SUV, easily tops the press conference on energy described in the entry…
tfk | October 17, 2006SurveyUSA finds the governor favored 55% to 42%, and Paul Morrison is up 56% to 43%. That's among likely voters. Incumbents are ahead in other statewide races.
The governor's numbers have held relatively steady, but this represents a major shift for Morrison. Republican support for the incumbent Republican slipped 12 points, while Independent and Democratic support for Morrison held steady at 61 and 87% respectively. Conservative support for their man Kline is unchanged, but moderates went from backing Morrison by 35% to 49% support for him.
SUSA used to split pro-life and pro-choice…
tfk | October 16, 2006
Nancy Boyda raised $147,782.99 this quarter, and spent $155,448.17. Jim Ryun managed to raise $157,086.37, and spent $196,453.65. That a political newcomer can go toe-to-toe with a 5 term congressman with copious ties to the DC money machine is remarkable on its own. But Ryun has raised half his money in big donations from PACs and the DC money machine. while Boyda has taken only 6% of her money from PACs. Kansans are voting for change with their wallets.
Of course, the $200,000 that Dick Cheney raised (after the reporting period ended) for Ryun gives him strength going into the last…
tfk | October 16, 2006Every week, the Kansas Guild of Bloggers gathers to share the finest craftsmanship in the bloggish arts. This week brought us 5 submissions, plus a few posts that I snagged on my own.
In Kalimba-bel's Canon?, John of Blog Meridian:
cannot help but be seduced, at least for this morning, by the fancy that a non-Western culture built an instrument designed specifically to play one of the most-recognizable Western melodies ever composed
Fire up your Konono Number 1 and read on.
The KU chapter of Kansas Citizens for Science is writing about Art and Science.
Meanwhile, Joel of Cup o' Joel says Let…
tfk | October 14, 2006In response to her recent proposal to change the powers of the Board of Education, Steve Abrams, the Ed. board chairman sez Sebelius is an ‘elitist.’ Quoth the Abrams:
"Personal insults from this liberal governor are the only arguments she can make due to the lack of her own accomplishments."
All class, our man Abrams. Using personal insults to claim that someone else used personal insults. Then, tossing his dictionary to the wind, he continued his email to news organizations by writing
"to infer that the State Board of Education is responsible for the lack of economic development in…
tfk | October 13, 2006Democracy Corps just released a major study of 49 House districts currently held by Republicans. The Ryun-Boyda race is not yet in the top 49 races, but pollster Stan Greenberg and strategist James Carville are thinking that Democrats need to challenge more than just those 49. Stan Greenberg says that "there've got to be seats beyond these 49," most of which are in a band from Connecticut to Indiana. The Democratic challenger has a 2 point advantage over the incumbent in the bottom tier of races, the ones that the pollsters considered a stretch originally.
Especially interesting is the…
tfk | October 13, 2006Phill Kline (the extra l is for "lying") has been claiming that his challenger in the race for Kansas Attorney General created a crime wave through a sentencing reform law he helped draft. Morrison has been defending himself vigorously, and now he gets support from a surprising corner. A foundation established by two Kline supporters, one a former employee, takes him to task:
This irresponsible claim and attempt to instill fear in Kansas Voters is the worst example of demagoguery.
To insinuate that massive murders, rapes, and general criminal rampage resulted by this bill is not only…
tfk | October 13, 2006Ryun a neighbor to Florida rep 10/13/06:
U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun said he didn't know until recently he lives across the street from disgraced Florida Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned after he was found to have sent inappropriate e-mails to congressional pages. …
When asked whether he knew Foley well, Ryun said: "Not really. You've got 232 Republicans, and he's one of those members. I've met him, but I don't spend any time with him."
Except for fundraising parties, apparently. From the Washington Post in May:
Amidst the malodorous mists rolling off the Hill these days, some might think a nod to…
tfk | October 12, 2006Conservative commentator Steve Forman is outraged! What stirred him up enough to write:
This is nothing more than a power grab by the executive branch. Anyone who supports separation of powers should oppose this.
Is it the President asserting that he doesn't have to accept Congress's decision to put minimum standards for a FEMA director? Or the White House insisting that courts can't rule on its warrantless surveillance of American citizens? Congress stripping people of the right to habeas corpus?
No, Forman is OK with all of that. The problem is suggesting that Kansas' education system…
tfk | October 12, 2006The Lancet has published a study of mortality in Iraq, a followup to a similar study from a year ago. In this study, they estimated that over 650,000 more people died in Iraq during the US occupation than would have died otherwise.
The Questionable Authority has some objections. I'll start off by pointing out that he isn't disputing the basic conclusion. Mike writes:
even if I am correct, and all of these errors result in overestimates of the total number of deaths, the number is still going to be much higher than the "official" totals. The population of Iraq is being harmed by this war,…
tfk | October 12, 2006I didn't have $1,000 to blow on getting a photo with Dick Cheney, so you'll have to conjure up his image in your mind as he told Jim Ryun's donors to "return Republicans to Congress in order to keep tax cuts on the books and U.S. forces in Iraq."
Is there anyone who really looks forward to keeping troops in Iraq? Honestly?
Right now, half the country thinks Democrats would do a better job with Iraq, while only a third think Republicans can handle it. And only 20% have a favorable opinion of Cheney. For someone in that situation to ask us to trust him is a bit much. He is correct,…
tfk | October 12, 2006Baker's Panel Rules Out Iraq Victory according to the New York Sun. Leaked policy papers suggest the panel is considering either stabilizing Baghdad while working toward political accommodation with insurgents, or a strategy of redeploying troops out of Iraq. The latter plan sounds not unlike what John Murtha and others have been advocating for some time now, and what polls show the public favors.
The most interesting thing was a comment by a member of the panel about a distinction Baker has been drawing between promoting democracy and advocating "representative government":
"Baker wants to…
tfk | October 11, 2006In response to Kathleen Sebelius calling for a reorganization of the state Board of Education, and her comparison between the Board's notoriety and that of fellow Kansan Fred Phelps, Ken Willard told the Capitol Journal:
"What is she doing about it? What kind of communicating are we doing across the country about the great things in Kansas?"
I asked him what he felt he had done to improve the image of the state, but he has not chosen to respond. I also asked his opponent, a former Chair of the Board of Regents as well as a teacher and a state legislator, what he thought of Sebelius' idea and…
tfk | October 11, 2006Boyda poll shows dead heat with Ryun:
During a news conference, Boyda, of Topeka, said her underdog campaign remains a dead heat.
She released her campaign poll, which she said shows Ryun at 42.6 percent and Boyda at 40 percent with the rest undecided. Last month, she released polling that had her with a slight edge. …
[A Ryun spokesman] said he doubted her poll results and said their release was a ploy to keep people contributing to her campaign.
Black said the Ryun campaign would not release its poll results.
If Ryun were polling outside the margin of error, he'd release his internal…
tfk | October 11, 2006Mike the Mad Biologist points to a DailyKos diary. The diarist is helping make a video for the Topeka Bible Church, asking people what they pray for, when a woman approached them:
He asked her what she prayed for, and she said this:
"I pray, every day, that my husband, Jim Ryun, wins re-election for the United States House of Representatives."
I told her she couldn't say that on a church thing. She seemed generally surprised by this. And then she asked me if I wanted to volunteer for her husband's campaign.
I was a little taken aback at this, I'll admit, so my declining her offer may have…
tfk | October 11, 2006Governor Kathleen Sebelius has largely stayed out of the educational battle that has swirled in Kansas over the last year. But she has stepped into the fray with a promise to restructure the Board of Ed if re-elected:
"I think we have a real institutional, structural problem in the state," Sebelius told The Topeka Capital-Journal editorial board. "The elected school board that we have in place doesn't function in this day and age. There's very little accountability."…
Sebelius said she has encountered people outside the state who have heard of the board's decisions -- and little else -- when…
tfk | October 10, 2006My article at Seedmagazine.com discusses the role of good government in promoting both economic development and in protecting natural resources, a claim some people find counterintuitive.
But examples abound. A week ago, a deal was announced for the U.S. to Cut Guatemala’s Debt for Not Cutting Trees:
the government of Guatemala has agreed, in exchange for the debt forgiveness, to invest $24.4 million over the next 15 years in conservation work in four nature regions.
This is the largest amount of debt that has been forgiven by the United States under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act,…