How to be politically ambiguous just like Kate

TOPEKA (AP) -- Gov. Kathleen Sebelius says she won't propose a tax increase to help solve the state's budget problems.

Sounds great with all the ambiguity and clear lack of reality; if not a total knowing, wilful and intentional distortion by Kate. When it comes to taxes and elections, most politicans to get elected all promise no increase in taxes. The problem is these politicans never get specific enough on which tax.

In the Kansas legislature, this typcially refers to your state income tax. While tricky politicans always ensure in Kansas some, or many taxes will be going up. I am not even certain of when all taxes paid to the state of Kansas last went in reverse.

Moreover, what the Kansas legislature has been doing, in addition to raising a host of taxes, is to to also shift the burden to the counties. Taxes are just shifted around politically. Just remember, county governments are merely instruments of the state. So an increase in county taxes is an increase in state taxes.

The next time a politican states they are not going to raise taxes, ask them which ones? Make them be specific instead of ambiguous. Plus as noted by Kate, notice the qualifier-"to solve the state budget". She will merely raise taxes for infrastructure; or some other ambiguous term instead of using the word "budget".

Also note the word "she". Maybe she won't. Instead, she will merely let the Kansas legislature raise several taxes. Regardless, some of your state and county taxes are going to be going up considering the reality of a billion dollar deficit. Plus, if Obama's economic abomination (socialist stimulus package) gives pork to the state of Kansas, Kansas is going to be required to contribute a portion, as well.

So Kate, where is this billion plus dollars going to come from? Not to mention the Kansas legislature still has to comply with the Kansas Supreme Court and Shawnee Co. Judge Bullock regarding increased funding to public education.

So if you want get elected as a politician, you have to master deniability and learn to be really ambiguous.

Just like our governor.

KU scores 0

Good job KU in losing all that money on the stock market instead of distributing those endowment funds to the students as intended by the donors.

"KU Endowment, the official fundraising foundation for the University of Kansas, is cutting its distributions for scholarships, lectures and academic programs by 10 percent next school year. The foundation saw its investment portfolio decline by 39 percent - from $1.22 billion on June 30 to $747 million on Nov. 30."

KU is basically using generous endowment funds to play the market instead of giving those funds to the students. This is outrageous. Losing 473 million dollars. Instead of cutting scholarships, lectures and academic programs, fire people in charge of KU Endowment Foundation.

In addition, I suggest KU stop playing the stock market with the remaining 747 million and use those funds as intended by the donors and reduce tuition and give the the rest to KU students in the form of scholarships not based on race/gender.

How to Build an Abominable Snowman

1. Pull off a huge snow job.

2. Use snow job to con about a trillion dollars to pay for it by calling it an "infrastructure" program.

3. Start a public works program to pay unlawful unemployed workers to build the Abominable Snowman.

4. Call Snowman by proclamation, Yeti.

5. Request four more years and another trillion to finish abominable snowman.

6. Shout after a trillion or so, "yes we can" shave your Yeti at http://shavemyyeti.com/

Abomination Ball

There is a lot to look forward to regarding the upcoming Abomination Inaugural Ball. So, I am going to start making an editable list:

1. Can Oprah really lose 15 pounds in time? Will skipping lunch one day do the trick?

2. How many people will commit civil disobedience by bringing Silly String?

3. How many people will bring their lawn chairs anyway?

4. How many dumb people will spend $50,000?

5. Will Kate Gilligan Sebelius still go despite no cabinet appointment?

6. Will Joe Biden be allowed to speak?

7. What color of pant suit will Hillary wear?

8. If you bring a baby and a stroller, who gets arrested? The baby or the stroller?

9. What is the fine for bringing a baby stroller?

10. Where is it stated in the United States Code that it is unlawful to bring a baby stroller to an inaugural ball?

11. What federal court has original jurisdiction for prosecuting possession of unlawful silly string, lawn chairs, and/or baby strollers?

12. If you are prosecuted, do you get sent to the new federal prison in Europe along with the rest of the transfers from GITMO?

13. Will the Supreme Court be hearing a case next year on unlawful possession of a baby stroller/silly string/lawn chair?

14. Ok, per SCOTUS a person can have a concealed weapon in DC; just unlawful to possess silly string, lawn chairs and/or baby strollers.
What can we expect to be unlawful next?

15. Will Aboma request to swear to uphold the office using the Koran instead of the Bible?

16. Should Oprah be charged with false advertising if she cannot lose 15 pounds in time?

17. Using man-think, can we men merely attach an engine powered by silly string that modifies a baby stroller; and then merely claim it is a new prototype vehicle as a lawful defense when the try to arrest us?

Smiley for attorneys

Below is a smiley to represent your typical cheap lawyer:

(*) asshole.

Here is the smiley to represent better lawyers at screwing you:

(*) huge asshole

Smiley to represent judge you are appearing before:

No font that big available on this blog.

Heck, let's just post Desirada

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are the vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for their will always be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly in the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You are needed in this world. Do not concern yourself with other worlds, for they do not exist. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding in an ordered manner.

Therefore, be at peace with nature and the mysterious process of evolution, whatever you conceive it to be; and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, strive to maintian your own inner peace while you do those things bring you happiness and contribute to the survival of humanity. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Author Unknown

The spirit of X-Mas

Due to the holiday spirit, I am taking a blog holiday including no edits.

Our dream is that all of us have a nice, peaceful, non-dramatic, non-political holiday. I like the unknown author of Desirada to help me (and maybe you) to put all things into proper perspective.

Enjoy. Be back soon enough.

Odds on which cabinet appointee gets canned first

Have some fun picking by posting your comment which Obama cabinet appointee gets canned first by vetting, rejection, or resigning. The odds and appointees will be updated and modified until the contest is over.

Any person that gets the right person and the right date wins Cabinet post:

Odds on favorite, Hilllary Clinton: Even money.

Odds of a southern politican getting a cabinet post: Zero.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich: Secretary in charge of prison laundry. Send bribe for odds.

Vice President: Joe Biden: 180 to 1, provided Barry does not let him talk about anything important.

Defense: Robert Gates, 12 Russian missles sites to 1 new site in Poland.

HHS: Tom Daschle , 2400 infections to 1

Interior: Ken Salazar, 26 interiors to 1

Labor: Hilda L. Solis, 1200 jobs in India to 1 in America.

Transportation: Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) 6 chevies to 4 Ford F-150's.

Energy: Steven Chu, gazillion to 1 because no will ever figure out what he is talking about.

Treasury Secretary : Timothy Geithner- Trillions of your tax dollars to 1.

Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano, 666 to 1

National Economic Council: Lawrence Summers, 40 to 1.

National Security Advisor: Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, 8 gallons of kool-aid to 1.

Attorney General: Eric Holder, 2 frivilous lawsuits to 1.

Commerce: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, 40 unlawfuls to 1 legal immigrant.

Education: Arne Duncan, head of the Chicago public school system, 32 1/3 divided by the square root of 3. 4 to 1.

Agriculture: Tom Vilsack, a former governor from the major U.S. farm state Iowa, 6 bushel of wheat to 8 apples.

Transportation: Somebody named LaHood. Hails from home state of Illinois and is said to have a rapport with the president-elect, 6 cronies to 1.

SEC: Mary Schapiro, Even, no margins, calls or puts allowed. No short selling. Credit Default Swaps OK.

Labor: California Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis, 2 fruitcakes to 1 straight avocado.

U. S. Trade Rep: Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, 20 Bush extortion points to 1.

Director of National Intelligence (Domestic Spying): Retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair, 400 wiretaps to 1 used facility in GITMO.

Married with Democratic Children: A draft play

This is a draft of a play I am writing. So come back as we develop the characters over the next four long and agonizing years. Especially, for the democrats.

Cast of characters:

Al Bundy: Played by you and our national economy
Peg Bundy: Played by Nancy Pelosi
Kelli Bundy: Played by Hillary Clinton
Bud Bundy: Played by Barry Obama
Marci Darci: Played by Kate Gilligan Sebelius
Steve Darci: Played by Rod Blagojevich
Buck, the dog: GOP party

Al comes through the front door depressed about financial matters.

Peg scurries over to greet him.

Peg: AAAAALLLL, I need some money.

Kelli: Yeah dad. We need some money. Look how little you gave us the last four years.

Bud: Yeah Dad. You keep spending way too much on that Dodge.

Al: Jeez. I come home after a long day and all I hear is money, money, money. All I have is this trillion dollar credit card. Get some groceries. But don't spend it all.

Peg grabs the credit card almost tearing Al's arm off.

Peg, Kelli and Bud start laughing gleefully as they exit never looking back.

Shot fades to Buck as he looks sadly at his empty dog bowl.

Al ignores Buck and goes over to get a beer. But the refrigerator is empty. Dejected, he walks over and turns on the TV and sits down on the couch. Inserts hand into pants to comfort himself.

Time for GM commercial:

Camera pans over crappy GM Auto. Audio track sings new GM song over and over).

Time for extortion. Buy our crappy cars or you don't get your bailout money back.

Fiscal Responsibility-An analogy

First, I just want to relate a personal experience that is just like Obama's Al Bundy theory of economic recovery.

In my backyard, I had an old clotheline pole. Using man-thought, I decided it needed to be dug up since I used a thing called a clothes dryer. So, I got my son to assist. We keep digging and digging. But, we could never get to the bottom of the concrete encasement keeping the pole in the ground.

And this is just like Obama's trillion dollar Al Bundy economic theory. The economy is in a big hole. So, Barry's theory is keep digging. Pretty soon, after a few trillions dollars are sunk into the hole, Obama and the rest of America might figure out you can't dig your way out of a bad economy by digging deeper and deeper holes.

So, both my son and I arrived at the obvious conclusion. We might want to stop digging. And we just pulled the pole out of the ground. Now I know most of us men have had similar kinds of experiences, because . . . well, we are men. And women keep reminding us over and over about such things.

So would anyone tell Barry to stop digging before the hole gets to China.

Fiscal Responsibilty and Accountability

Fiscal Responsibilty. Sounds simple. Unless you are an incumbent politician. Now all politicans when they are campaigning (except Barack Obama) typically talk about being fiscally responsible. But once elected, are not.

So we keep re-electing liars back to office over and over again; while the economy is tanking, the federal deficit keeps growing and the national debt keeps going higher and higher? Beats me why they keep lying. Hence, one of the reasons I chose to run for Congress. To be honest with the voters.

For future politicans to get elected, it seems you have to learn to be a huge liar and spin this fantasy to voters to get elected. It worked for Obama. I asked myself why did the Fantasy Express con the voters; while the Straight Talk Express tanked. So to me, this is stating if one wants to improve the chances of being elected, spin fantasy, have no integrity, morals, or ethics to get more votes.

Lie like a dog. People vote for fantasy instead of reality. Obama calls fantasy change and hope. Bush called it moral character. And I call Obama's fantasy of change to mean the value of the dollar will be worth change. Around a quarter by the time he is unelected.

Unfortunately, I cannot be a liar like these kinds of politicans. Like McCain, I don't play games and win votes by spinning a fantasy. Darn integrity, ethics and morals.

So in this next series of posts, I am going to give some links so we can all see what the facts are related to our federal government. At least by providing easy links, people can understand how merely spending around a trillion in 2009 will fail. In some blogs, I refer to this Obama error of logic as the Al Bundy economic theory.

Federal spending of a borrowed trillion dollars will not stimulate the economy. It will make things worse. A free market economy is what is needed instead of socialism and government takeover of key sectors of the economy. Merely refer to FDR's history after he was elected how his economic theories failed. To which Obama is merely trying the same thing with a high probability of the same type of result.

WWIII around 2018 by extrapolation.

Better Health Care: Will our current federal politicans make health care an issue?

Surely, our newly elected federal officials, both Senators and Congressman from Kansas are going to make better health care a priority issue in their representation of us. Right?

Check the links below on what to expect from our newly elected Kansas federal officials on their issue statements on what they intend to do to make your health care better legislatively:

http://brownback.senate.gov/english/legissues/healthcare/index.cfm

http://roberts.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=IssueStatements.Home

http://www.jerrymoran.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89&Itemid=61 (1st Congressional District)

http://www.lynnjenkins.com/inner.asp?z=3 (Congressman elect, 2nd Congressional District)

http://moore.house.gov/issue.asp?issue_ID=2 and http://moore.house.gov/issue.asp?issue_ID=18 (3rd Congressional District)

http://tiahrt.house.gov/?sectionid=6&sectiontree=6 (4th Congressional District).

If you did not find anything related to health care issues for some of these politicans, neither did I. I merely wonder why. Ask them why, although it might be a tad bit late.

And then if you wanted health care reform, ask yourself did you ask or inquire before the election, what was their position on health care issues before they were elected. In 2010, start asking before you vote.

Health Care Data: The first step to solutions

The first step for finding solutions to any complex problem including better health care in America is the data gathering phase. One of the easiest ways to find solutions is to determine what others are doing better. Basically, we don't have to always reinvent the wheel.

So, let us start looking globally to see what other countries are doing. I like the following link because this international organization in Switerzland is for all practical purposes, is going to be indifferent to health care in America. Although there will be a few critics stating this international organization (World Health Organization, WHO) is advocating an agenda that might be construed to not be in our national or your best interest.

WHO issued a ranking report on global health care in 2000 that is frequently cited and referred to. WHO by their ranking criteria, ranked America 37th; despite spending more than any other nation. While also noting the top 36 countries all had some kind of socialized or national health care. The United States does not. Although President-Elect Obama is advocating for national health care insurance for all via Medicaid. More than likely, as proposed in H.R. 676 known as United States National Health Insurance Act (or the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act). So try this link:

http://www.who.int/whr/2008/en/index.html.

In regard to one link I reviewed recently discussing health care in America, http://www.kaiser.edu.org/ provides a balanced and unbiased site discussing health care issues in detail.

Those give a starting place. There will be further links as we progress to arriving at some kind of intelligent consensus solution for how we can make better, our health care system. Expect data overload initially. But with a little bit of initial research, we can start filtering what is important and what is not.

One area that is important to focus on next will involve categories of people. While also trying to arrive at some kind of consensus on our reasonable expectations of governing bodies related to making health care better. We cannot presume that all the responsibility of your health care resides in government. It seems fair to state the ultimate responsibility of your own health care resides and should reside with the individual-you.

And any suggestions for better links with no special interest connections that you come upon, pass it along so we can all review that link. Just reflect and make a decision on whether that link is objective. For example, I do not consider the American Medical Association (AMA) to be objective. Their purpose is to to serve the interests of their profession. Organizations such as this are not objective; although they may provide some good data. These kinds of organizations typically are merely advocating the agenda of their profession to the benefit their members.

That's enough for today.

Issue Forum: Health Care in America

December 14, 2008

First, this blog is an experiment seeking solutions hopefully to the point where we can arrive at a consensus to some of the problems/issues we all face in America. My opinion is that solutions for improving America can be accomplished by the collective wisdom of many; instead of my narrow and limited view. So, the first issue (out of about 65) to start off is related to health care.

Second, just like running a successful business, you only need to be successful once. You can fail many times. So, I am not expecting one big solution to improving health care in America. The goal is to propose many solutions from various perspectives. So, we value all positive and constructive input.

Third, every solution will face harsh criticism from the status quo whom want to keep health care in America static; or advocate by their argument to why we should dismiss a consensus solution we all agree to; that is adverse to their interests. For example, health insurance and drug companies motivated by profits/greed.

Fourth, it will require input from many diverse people. For example, consumers , care-givers and policy-makers.

Fifth, it is easy to complain, whine and be cynical. But offer no solution. But maybe if we are lucky, we will like in business, get one or two solutions where there is a consensus of most of us. On the other hand, if you just want to complain about a specific health care situation for the benefit of many, without any solutions (which is OK), please be as brief as possible.

Sixth, I will do my best to merely moderate. I may seek facts, clarification or elaboration only as is needed that moves the issue in a positive direction.

Seventh, issues need some geographic context. So, keep that in consideration if your issue is local, county, national or global.

Eighth, sub-issues are anticipated depending upon interest. For example, maybe a lot of discussion starts focusing on a particular drug policy or health insurance. We will try to figure out how to separate sub-issues within a broad category such as health care.

Finally, it is OK to counter-argue a post by someone else. Just try to be civil about it. This is not a blog to be witty or used for your personal entertainment. Our simple goal with this blog is be informative and reflective on what people such as yourselves, consider as possible solutions to making America and Kansas a better place to be.


General Disclaimer: My personal goal is to merely find someone far better at being your representative than myself. I am tired of waiting for a politician that will discuss issues in detail with specificity including proffering solutions warranting your vote. So, welcome to an issue-based forum. We proffer no professional advice; nor assume any responsibility for content contained herein.

And if we start getting some posts, I will do more work on improving the blog format.

ts