The poll (repeated at the bottom):

The background:

Recently, an unnamed city “official” for Overland Park was quoted in The Kansas City Star, making a knowingly false statement against one its citizens, Jason Osterhaus, who had narrowly lost a 2009 primary race to incumbent Councilman Curt Skoog.  The official lied by falsely stating that the City of Overland Park had worked pleasantly with Osterhaus, after Osterhaus asked for a budget.  Osterhaus had made key plank in his 2009 campaign this: that he would put the budget online.  But recently, the “official” falsely criticized the accuracy Osterhaus’ statement — the official said that the budget already was online.

Here are the facts:  The City of Overland Park — under Mayor Carl Gerlach and City Manager John Nachbar — first asked Osterhaus to pay around $500 for a printed budget, in early 2009.  Later, the city provided Osterhaus with a largely meaningless printed document.  And weeks after that — only once Osterhaus was a candidate — did the city provide Osterhaus with what was even a SOMEWHAT helpful budget document, and for free.  Even this final document, however, had huge unexplained and unitemized holes in it.

Today — today, not in 2009 — there does exist online some semblance of a list of expenses, but it’s presently not known whether this online document is sufficiently specific.  And unhelpfully, the document is reportedly in a PDF format, rather than a smaller, more-searchable format.

The behavior by unnamed Overland Park officials smacks of arrogance and unaccountability.  One must ask:  Does John Nachbar think that he can do literally whatever he wants to do?  Is Nachbar perhaps under the illusion that more than a small number of residents still read the pro-corruption Johnson County Sun?

We’ve contacted the city, asking for an explanation and a remedy to this unacceptable behavior.  We’ll give Mayor Gerlach and Nachbar a reasonable amount of time to reply, but we want to know your opinion:  If they do not correct this clear error in judgment by an unnamed city “official” about one of his or her own residents, is this type of behavior worthy of a recall one one or more of the elected officials?

In order to see the results, please choose “Yes” or “No.”  You may leave comments on our page, here, if you wish (your first-ever comment must be approved by us, but you are then free to comment, at will.  We do not display your Email that you provide).

Published with permission. Click here or image for larger version.

Obamacare Scheming Smells of Jekyll Island

By Jack Cashill
Re-published with permission

In my new book, “Popes and Bankers,” I tell the story of how one hundred years ago this November, six faux duck hunters gathered on a small private island off the coast of Georgia.

The stealthy, incremental way in which the group plotted big government’s future set something of a blueprint for a century to come, one that Obama, Pelosi, Reid et al. have followed almost to the letter.

For at least four of the six, the descent to Georgia was draped in mystery. Each guest was instructed to show up at Hoboken Station and there board the private railroad car, blinds drawn, of Senator Nelson Aldrich. (more…)

I come before you a humbled man, dear reader, hat in hand and foot in mouth.  For years, I have decried the Roe Decision as bad law with no solid precedence.  I was wrong, and have learned the error of my way.  Justice Blackmun was following a fine legal tradition when he delivered the much maligned opinion of the court.

What brought about this jurisprudential epiphany?  As is often the case, it began with an innocent, only moderately related, conversation.  I was involved in a conversation the topic of which was that Kansas Supreme Court Justice Carole Beier was a ridiculous excuse for a judge.  Anytime you discuss corrupt, insane and or booze-addled judges, one name must come to mind - Judge Roy Bean.  We were, and it did, but I was a little bit surprised when I was asked to explain exactly why Bean was a member of the incompetent judge Hall of Fame. (more…)

Hodge writes at a RedState diary entry:

Sam Brownback cannot be taken seriously while ex-banker Lynn Mitchelson remains a campaign co-chair.

Some questions for future Kansas Governor Sam Brownback:

1. Why did you choose a provably corrupt public official to be a campaign co-chair?
2. Why is part of your campaign team giving a no-bid legal contract to the Democratic Party Chairman’s law firm, at the largest Kansas college, and when the college’s lawyer has clear ethical problems?
3. Are you trying to make Sarah Palin’s PAC look like a well-run organization?
4. Should we assume that you have given up hopes of becoming a future US President?
5. Is this how you plan on running the State of Kansas - through reckless acts of incompetence, corruption, and cover-ups, then followed by failed attempts to intimidate your critics (and even top news agencies)?  That’s what your choice of campaign co-chairs tells us.
6. Do you realize that for every one liberal “Republican” to whom your campaign is reaching out, you are losing - perhaps permanently - the support of two or three conservative voters?
7. Really, Senator? Really?

RedState readers, I can explain to you the national banking crisis, in three words:  Meet Lynn Mitchelson.

For 15 years, the ex-banker Lynn Mitchelson has been one of seven at-large elected trustees at Johnson County Community College.  In large part because he is now unelectable, Mitchelson will permanently retire from public office in 2011.

Mitchelson once had a reputation in Kansas City as someone who could “fix banks.”  Troubled banks would hire him as a temporary CEO, and, in theory, he would bring them back to health.   But now that his record in elected office is widely known, I’ll be surprised if he is ever again hired by a bank.  Why?  Because he is directly responsible for much of lawlessness, failed cover-ups, and retaliation that has become commonplace at JCCC.  The only thing more embarrassing than the corruption in which Mitchelson has participated, is that he has been so unsuccessful at carrying it out.  I did not properly understand the phrase “the cover-up is worse than the crime,” until I had witnessed first-hand Mitchelson at work.  Time and time again, Mitchelson’s actions have brought national embarrassment to this college, the largest college in Kansas.

I had not planned on writing about Mitchelson’s work, but today I’ve learned that JCCC leaders have made malicious, baseless legal threats directly to the top conservative news organization RedCounty.com, where I have written in detail about JCCC’s culture of corruption.

Inexplicably, the once-thought-to-be-conservative Sam Brownback months ago made Mitchelson a key part of Brownback’s 2010 campaign for governor, even though Mitchelson’s public record was already well-known.  Brownback campaign manager David Kensinger - who apparently is under the illusion that Brownback can literally do whatever he wants, and that Brownback then will automatically receive the enthusiastic support of conservatives - doesn’t want to talk about it.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

The “Diversity Lane” Series by Zack Rawsthorne is re-published with permission.

Published with permission.

Jim Meyer helps lead ResistNet, a local tea party site.

It’s Time tot Get Off the Fence
by Jim Meyer

Note: The following viewpoint is solely my own. It does not represent an official endorsement by ResistNet or its partner organizations.

Even if the time hasn’t come for all ResistNet members to decide who should be the “Tea Party” Candidate for Congress in the Kansas Third Congressional District, and even if the time hasn’t come for ICaucus to render its judgment on the matter, I believe that the time has come for me to decide–and to announce–which candidate I personally favor in the Third District Congressional race. (more…)

In both the headline and the body of an article on the KC Star Prime Buzz, Steve Kraske mentions two moderate Republican candidates — pro-life, fiscal moderate Nick Jordan and pro-choice moderate Kevin Yoder — who will appear at a forum sponsored by Hope for America Coalition.

It has long been clear that either Jordan or Yoder are the preferred choices of a small group of establishment, out of touch Republican leaders, and while either may yet win the Republican primary in August 2010, a victory is far from certain.  Jordan suffers from under-performance in a self-released poll, that shows him “leading” with a mere 27% of the vote, despite spending over $1 million less than two years ago against Democrat Dennis Moore.  Only three candidates — former Rep. Patricia Lightner, John Rysavy, and Daniel Gilyeat — entered the race prior to Dennis Moore’s decision to not run for re-election.  Jordan and Yoder waited until Moore drop out.

Kraske continues to do a disservice to both The Star and 3rd District voters by oddly ignoring candidates who have not been pre-approved by the moderate and liberal Republicans who at most represent 40% of the party’s voters.

©Jack Cashill

As a 19 year-old, Barack Obama had two of his poems published in the spring 1981 edition of Occidental College’s literary magazine, Feast.

One was a silly poem called “Underground” about ” apes/ that eat figs” in underwater grottoes. A friendly critic has described it as a “vivid if obscurely symbolic description of a tribe of submarine primates.”

Although arguably the best poem about submarine primates ever written, Obama’s literary acolytes have largely–and charitably–chosen not to notice. (more…)

Link.

The managing editor of Townhall Magazine called Diversity Lane “very, very well done.”  And Michigan Review described it as “laugh out loud funny.”  Why not make this the day you discover the best in conservative comedy today at Diversity Lane?

This Diversity Lane material is offered up for your blogging or emailing usage.   If you’d like a for-print version for publication or print purposes please notify me at zackrawsthorne@cox.net
For more fun visit the website/blog at www.diversitylane.com or go directly to the blog at www.diversitylane.wordpress.com.

Thank you,

Zack Rawsthorne

Jack Cashill
February 1, 2010
Published with permission

Until last week, I had avoided the swamplands of Barack Obama’s origins, a place from which reputations rarely return.

What prompted my interest was a reader inquiry into a poem by then 19-year old Obama called “Pop,” a cynical bit of work almost assuredly written about his maternal grandfather Stanley Dunham, “Gramps.” (more…)

KC Star Prime Buzz:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had to cancel an appearance Monday at a global warming rally in Washington, D.C., that was hit by a snowstorm because her flight was delayed, her office told CNSNews.com.  

Op-Ed by Peter Lucas:  Kansas Unemployment FAIL

Back in the 90’s, I worked for a company that was seasonal. We would work 9 months and be laid off for 3. I was laid off, so I enrolled in a couple of night classes. I was still available to work, but the unemployment office told me I could not draw unemployment if I was a student. So their brilliant plan was to give my lazy coworkers money (the ones who were watching Jerry Springer and drinking beer all day), but not give me, the hard working student, anything. Thanks Kansas.

I’ve been reading lots of news about the underfunded Kansas unemployment system, and how they are in dire need of more money, and how they’re raising rates (nearly double) on employers because so many people are currently unemployed. (more…)

When Amanda Adkins was elected a year ago to the top position of Kansas Republican Party chair, she went unchallenged, and there was some degree of enthusiasm and optimism.   While few knew Adkins personally, there was a large amount of trust placed in her, due to the knowledge that she was “Brownback’s choice.”  Brownback’s preference in Adkins — a former campaign manager for Brownback — had never been clearly, publicly stated, but this was the unsaid conventional wisdom among Republican activists. (more…)